The major investment banks are looking to offer hedge funds to the (affluent) masses. A Goldman Sachs fund has already raised $58 million since it was launched in May and other banks such as UBS and Merrill Lynch are mulling similar products. The minimum investment is somewhere around $100,000. Given that hedge funds have underperformed the market for four straight years and retail products usually charge higher fees than institutional products, these new offerings deserve extra scrutiny.
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Sometime activist investor Clinton Group continues to turn up the heat on Digital Generation, a provider of digital technology services to the media industry. The hedge fund Tuesday reported that it has raised its stake in the company to 8.4 percent from 7.2 percent. Earlier this year it worked out a settlement with the company, enabling two of the hedge fund’s nominees to be nominated to the company’s board of directors.
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Shares of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, a favorite short position of David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital, fell nearly 6 percent to $72.61 amid reports of heavy insider selling and reports that the company’s K-Cups lost market share in the second quarter to private-label brands. The stock is now at its lowest price in more than five weeks and is down more than 11 percent from its all-time high.
