Glenview Capital Management’s flagship fund continued its fourth-quarter surge in November.
The fund, Glenview Capital Partners, gained 4.6 percent last month, cutting its loss for the year to just 5.5 percent, according to an investor. It is now up more than 8 percent in the fourth quarter.
Glenview Opportunity fund, a more concentrated version of the main fund, gained 2.4 percent in November and is now solidly in the black for the year, up 5.9 percent, according to the investor.
Together the two funds have roughly broken even for the year.
The firm’s healthcare fund, Glenview Healthcare Partners, added 0.5 percent in November, trimming its loss for the year to 9.5 percent, according to the investor. Unlike many of the better-known life sciences hedge funds, the healthcare fund generally invests in more established companies with larger market capitalizations.
Glenview, headed by Larry Robbins, declined comment.
For many years, Glenview’s long portfolio was heavily dominated by healthcare stocks. Not anymore. At the end of the third quarter, just four of the firm’s top-10 U.S.-listed longs were healthcare companies or companies that serve the healthcare industry.
These included number-one long Cigna, the insurance giant, and number-two long Tenet Healthcare, the hospital management giant. The two stocks — which combined accounted for nearly a quarter of Glenview’s U.S. long assets at the end of the third quarter — were up nearly 2 percent and a little over 4 percent, respectively, in November. Shares of Cigna have surged about 42 percent for the year.
In the third quarter, Glenview trimmed its stake in Cigna by 6 percent, after nearly doubling its position in the first half of the year. At the same time, it boosted its position in Tenet — until recently its largest long — by 18 percent.
Otherwise, the firm was heavily driven last month by food service conglomerate US Foods, which was up 23 percent, and Irish-American automotive technology supplier Aptiv, which enjoyed a 17 percent gain. Glenview boosted its stake in Aptiv by more than 50 percent in the third quarter, according to its recent 13F quarterly filing.
Glenview also made a big bottom-fishing bet in the third quarter on e-commerce giant Amazon, boosting its stake by 61 percent. So far, that wager hasn’t worked out particularly well — the stock was down 5.6 percent last month and down 14.6 percent for the quarter through November.
Global Payments, which offers payment technology and software to small and midsize merchants, was the biggest loser last month among Glenview’s top-ten longs, dropping roughly 9 percent. The stock is down 25 percent for the year.
In the third quarter, Glenview cuts its stake by 35 percent in Coca-Cola European Partners, previously its seventh-largest long.
