Edward Lampert and his ESL Partners reduced their stakes in two of their holdings. From June 5 to July 31 they combined to unload 3.4 million shares of AutoNation, a stake they have been periodically paring for the past few years. Some of the stock was sold in the open market, while more than 2.4 million shares were distributed to partners. As a result of the transactions, Lampert now controls more than 13.7 million shares under a previously agreed-upon lock-up agreement, while ESL owns a little more than 9 million shares. In addition, on July 31, several partnerships distributed nearly one million shares of Sears Hometown & Outlet Stores, Inc. At the same time other partnerships acquired more than 272,000 shares. The net result: ESL now owns 4.95 million shares, while Lampert controls 5.7 million shares.

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Herbalife fell another 6 percent to close at $52.40. It is now down more than 22 percent in the past three days and sits at its lowest price since mid-April. Last week, William Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management, which has called the company a fraud and is betting heavily that its shares will fall, promised to deliver a “death blow” to the company in the form of a lengthy presentation. Shares surged more than 25 percent after the lecture, however.

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The BH Macro Fund, run by London-based Brevan Howard Asset Management, is up slightly this month through July 25, trimming its loss for the year to 3.51 percent. The publicly traded fund invests substantially all of its assets in the firm’s flagship Brevan Howard Master Fund.

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The BlueTrend Master Fund, which posted a 2.36 percent gain in June and 6 percent gain for the first half, tells clients in its June letter that it made money in four of its seven sectors that it trades. The equity and energy sectors performed strongest, while three other sectors only provided “minor detractions.” It added that the fund maintained its long bias to fixed income markets, “although overall exposure was reduced slightly over the month.” The fund, run by London-based BlueCrest Capital Management, had a tough 2013, posting a decline of 11.38 percent — its first losing year.

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Steven Cohen’s family office, Point72 Asset Management,disclosed a 5.4 percent passive position in Insmed Incorporated, a developer of so-called orphan drugs. The firm was formerly known as SAC Capital Advisors, before the Stamford, Connecticut–based firm pleaded guilty to insider trading charges and Cohen converted it to a family office.