Paulson & Co. founder John Paulson and his wife Jenny have donated $8.5 million to Success Academy Charter Schools, making Paulson the latest hedge fund manager to financially support charter schools. The wildly successful network of 34 schools was founded in 2006 by former City Council member Eva Moskowitz. It has a reputation for a high number of students with above-average test scores, but has been a lightning rod for New York’s supporters of the status quo, especially the archaic rules governing the New York public school system. Third Point’s Daniel Loeb, who along with his wife founded three Success Academy schools, also serves as chair of the Academy’s board of directors. The big question is when the status quo lobby, Hedge Clippers, protests outside Paulson’s office.
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Several investment banks raised their price targets on Facebook following the social media giant’s very strong quarterly earnings report late Wednesday. UBS, for example, lifted its target from $92 to $110 and maintained its Buy rating, while Stifel Nicolaus raised its target from $95 to $108 and maintained its Buy recommendation. It singled out management discussions suggesting that “Instagram monetization may be ramping more gradually than investors hoped” and that video ads “are already a meaningful contributor today and likely ahead of consensus expectations.” The bank tells clients: “We believe Facebook is well-positioned to continue attracting a greater share of global advertising budgets.”
Deutsche Bank raised its price target from $100 to $115, noting that Facebook “continues to execute near-flawlessly.” Despite all the exuberance, the stock closed Thursday at $95.21, down 1.84 percent.
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Shares of Air Products & Chemicals surged more than 6 percent after the company raised its earnings guidance for the year. Remember that as of the end of the first quarter, William Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management was the largest shareholder, while Greenwich, Connecticut-based Viking Global Investors and New York-based Och-Ziff Capital Management were the fifth and sixth largest investors, respectively.
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Game Creek Fund and Game Creek Offshore Fund returned 2.2 percent in the second quarter, bringing their gains for the year to 5.2 percent. The funds are managed by Boston-based Game Creek Capital, headed by Sean Murphy, who was named a hedge fund industry “rising star” by Institutional Investor magazine in 2012. The firm managed $144 million as of February 28, according to a regulatory filing.
