The “head trader” identified in the Securities and Exchange Commission complaint filed against CR Intrinsic Investors employee Mathew Martoma is SAC Capital employee Phillipp Villhauer, Bloomberg reports. Villhauer is reportedly the person who helped the firm, of which CR Intrinsic is an affiliate, trade the pharmaceutical stocks that led to Martoma’s arrest for insider trading. Meanwhile, SAC is planning another conference call with clients for Friday. The firm revealed in a conference call on Wednesday that it has received a Wells notice from the SEC over the trades.
Citi Research has initiated coverage of hedge fund favorite Apple, issuing a “Buy” rating and a $675 price target on the stock. After a 28 percent correction since September 21 (though the shares have since partially recovered), Apple is “consistent with past corrections in its own history and that of its peers,” Citi analysts wrote. The investment bank also stresses that its price target is 11 percent below the consensus target for the stock, saying it reflects risks that are increasingly coming into focus, including rising competition in the smartphone market and other risks to Apple’s gross margins. At the end of the third quarter, Apple’s stock ranked among the top-10 holdings among 109 hedge funds.
A Russian businessman who is said to be a key witness against Russian officials who have been accused of stealing $230 million from a London hedge fund, Hermitage Capital, was found dead. British officials have launched a second post-mortem examination of the businessman, Alexander Perepilichny, after the first one proved inconclusive. Hermitage’s lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, died in a Moscow jail in 2009; Hermitage contents that Magnitsky was and murdered in prison. Magnitsky was investigating the same scheme as Perepilichny.
