Warren Buffett, Tesco: In a filing with the London Stock Exchange a few hours ago, billionaire Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway reported that they’ve lowered their stake in Tesco PLC (LON:TSCO) to just under 5% of the company’s outstanding shares. This marks a decrease from 5.1% reported earlier this year; shares of Tesco are up 3% over the past week.

Disclosure: none

Coliseum Capital, Jamba: Christopher Shackelton and Adam Gray‘s hedge fund Coliseum Capital disclosed initiating a position in Jamba, Inc.(NASDAQ:JMBA). According to the 13G filing, Coliseum now holds around 1.05 million shares of the company, which represent 6.1% of its common stock.

Disclosure: none

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Jana Partners Goes Activist on QEP Resources, Seeks Spinoff and Share Repurchase

Israel Englander Raises Stake in Spectrum Pharmaceuticals

Mario Gabelli, Gamco Raise Stake in The L.S. Starrett Company to 15%

Jana Partners, QEP Resources: In a 13D just reported to the SEC, activist Barry Rosenstein‘s Jana Partners disclosed a 7.5% stake in QEP Resources Inc (NYSE:QEP). In the filing, the fund lists a few tactics it will push for to stimulate shareholder value at QEP:

1) Add board members and management with proven midstream value creation

2) Separate all of QEPFS from QEP to unlock its “true value”

3) Pursue a significant return of capital to shareholders

Check out the letter Barry Rosenstein sent to QEP Resources’ Board:

Jana Partners, Barry Rosenstein’s Letter to QEP Resources

Disclosure: none

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Coliseum Capital Likes Jamba Juice

Israel Englander Buys Some Spectrum Pharmaceuticals

Mario Gabelli and GAMCO Are Bullish on This Company

Millennium Management, Spectrum Pharmaceuticals: Israel Englander and his hedge fund company Millennium Management now hold over 3.2 million shares of Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SPPI). The stake represents 5.1% of the company’s common stock, and Mr. Englander holds the shares through his Integrated Core Strategies, ICS Opportunities and Integrated Assets funds. In its latest 13F, Millennium reported owning slightly above 2 million shares of Spectrum.

Disclosure: none

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Mario Gabelli, Gamco Raise Stake in The L.S. Starrett Company to 15%

Texas-Based Clover Partners Owns 6.6% of OBA Financial

Daniel Och's Oz Management Discloses 5.14% Stake in SFX Entertainment

Gamco, The L.S. Starrett Company: Mario Gabelli‘s Gamco Investors just disclosed it is increasing its position in The L.S. Starrett Company (NYSE:SCX) to almost 15% of the company. In the filing, Gamco disclosed holding an aggregate amount of 908,773 shares, versus 254,358 shares in its latest 13F. In an earlier filing, Gamco reported about increasing its position in Zep, Inc. to 18%.

Disclosure: none

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Texas-Based Clover Partners Owns 6.6% of OBA Financial

Daniel Och's Oz Management Discloses 5.14% Stake in SFX Entertainment

Steadfast Capital Reveals a 5% Stake in Zynga

Clover Partners, OBA Financial: In an SEC filing this afternoon, Texas-based Clover Partners revealed it is upping its position in OBA Financial Services Inc (NASDAQ:OBAF). Clover now holds 268,410 shares, which represent 6.6% of the common stock, versus 218,410 shares, equal to 5.3% disclosed in an earlier filing.

Disclosure: none

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Steadfast Capital Reveals a 5% Stake in Zynga

Par Also Cuts Stake in Alaska Air Group

Why Buffett Won't Invest in Commodity Companies

Oz Management, SFX Entertainment: Daniel S. Och‘s Oz Management just reported ownership of 4.3 million shares of SFX Entertainment Inc (NASDAQ:SFXE). The passive stake represents 5.14% of the company’s common stock and has a value worth almost $43.6 million. This is a new position for the firm.

Disclosure: none

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Steadfast Capital Reveals a 5% Stake in Zynga

Par Capital Management Halves Stake in Penn National Gaming

Activist Stilwell Picks Up Stake in Poage Bankshares

Zynga, Steadfast Capital: Just now, Steadfast Capital Management, a hedge fund run by Robert Pitts, disclosed it is initiating a passive stake in Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA). According to the filing, Steadfast now holds around 31.5 million shares of the online social games developer. The position represents 5.07% of Zynga’s Class A Common Stock.

Disclosure: none

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Par Also Cuts Stake in Alaska Air Group

Why Buffett Won't Invest in Commodity Companies

Activist Stilwell Picks Up Stake in Poage Bankshares

Par Capital Management, Alaska Air Group: Par Capital Management, a hedge fund led by Paul Reeder & Edward Shapiro, recently dropped some shares of its holding in Alaska Air Group, Inc. (NYSE:ALK). According to the SEC filing, Par Capital Management now holds around 2.35 million shares of Alaska Air Group, while in the latest 13F, the holding contained around 4.21 million shares. The new stake represents 3.4% of the company. Earlier today, Par Capital Management also disclosed slicing its exposure in Penn National Gaming.

Disclosure: none

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Why Buffett Won't Invest in Commodity Companies

Mario Gabelli, Gamco Now Own 18% of Zep Inc

EJF Capital Ups Stake in Cape Bancorp

The Oracle of Omaha has been quoted many times stating that he does not like to invest in companies that rely on commodities as a main source of income. Having said that, this has not stopped him from directing Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.B)’s cash to companies such as Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) and ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) in the past. Of course, Buffett‘s Conoco bet led to a $1 billion loss, leading the sage himself to openly admitted that the Conoco investment in particular was a mistake.

So why does Buffett like to stay away from commodity companies? Well, the answer becomes pretty clear we we take a quick look at the erratic earnings of companies that rely on commodities as their main source of income.

Buffett’s first rule of investing is “never lose money.” Rule two is ”never forget rule 1.” In effect, these rules imply that you shouldn’t gamble with money. Unfortunately, investing in the commodity markets is gambling to an extent, as no one is able to accurately forecast the price of commodities over time. What’s more, without the ability to accurately or reliably predict commodity prices, companies that operate in this space have no way of maintaining a wide profit margin and are at the mercy of the market. Right now, the best example of this is the gold mining industry.

Consider CONSOL Energy Inc. (NYSE:CNX), the largest U.S.-based company in the basic resources sector.

Source: MarketWatch.com. Figures in $US billions.

Consol produces coal and gas, both of which have seen their prices come under pressure during the past five years. As a result, Consol’s net income has fallen 12% during the five-year period and both its net and gross margins have been erratic to say the least. Because of this, the company lacks any clarity regarding its financial outlook.

Source: InfoMine.com. The collapsing price of thermal coal has been outside of Consol’s control.

In comparison, consider the financials for Buffett’s core holding The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) over the past five years.

Source: MarketWatch.com. Figures in $US billions.

Coke’s ability to set the prices on the products it sells means that it has been able to keep its gross profit and profit margin steady. In addition, a steady gross margin has resulted in the company’s net and gross incomes grinding steadily higher along with revenues — something that Consol has not been able to achieve.

Buffett’s mistake
Warren Buffett famously doubled his stake in ConocoPhillips back in 2008, right before the price of oil plummeted (along with the stock market). Volatile commodity prices hurt all commodity companies, no matter how big or influential they are. Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX), one of the largest international oil and gas companies in the world, was hit hard by the oil price collapse, and the company’s revenue is only just now getting back to levels seen before the crash.

Source: MarketWatch.com. Figures in $US billions.

Mortgage REITs reward investors with lofty dividends, but when rates rise, mREIT share prices bomb.

We only need to look to mREITs like Western Asset Mortgage Capital Corp (NYSE:WMC) and Annaly Capital Management, Inc. (NYSE:NLY) to see the carnage over the past year. Both continue to trade below book value as investors worry about the potential for future capital losses.

Even one of the best hedged mortgage REITs, Two Harbors Investment Corp (NYSE:TWO), is among mortgage REITs with a negative year-to-date price return. Two Harbors’ managers have been the most active in insulating the company from rising interest rates, but that isn’t enough to keep it in the green.

NLY data by YCharts.

How you can protect your portfolio
Rising rates have a negative industrywide effect on mortgage REITs. For dividend seekers, that could spell trouble if the Fed moves to reduce its bond buying and cut back on quantitative easing.

Fortunately, there’s a way to hedge against these risks by swapping some high-yield mREITs for lower yield insurance stocks.

Um, what?

You might be thinking I’ve fallen off my rocker inserting insurance into an article on mortgage REITs, but hear me out: When it comes to interest rate sensitivity, insurance companies should benefit, not lose, from rising rates. When rates go up, returns on an insurance company’s investment portfolio follow. That means their net income is positively correlated to higher rates over long periods of time. Thus, insurance stocks can act as a hedge to an mREIT portfolio.

Insurance companies are in a very similar business to mortgage REITs. They “borrow” money paid in through premiums to invest in investment-grade bonds using leverage. That’s awfully similar to Two Harbors, Western Asset Mortgage Corp., and Annaly Capital, which borrow to invest in mortgages with borrowed money.

One insurance stalwart should be on your radar. The Chubb Corporation (NYSE:CB) is both an excellent insurance underwriter and investor. It writes insurance profitability and tops off those profits with gains from its investment portfolio, which is funded by insurance premiums.

Dividends aren’t everything
Now, The Chubb Corporation doesn’t pay a big dividend. If you buy now, you’ll earn a yield of just 2%. But over its history, the company has quietly repurchased a significant 26% of its own stock, driving down share count and pushing its share price higher.

Not to mention, over the past 10 years, it made money in every single year, while posting double-digit returns on equity in all but 2012. Those double-digit returns on equity flow into repurchases, which drive higher per-share prices, ultimately rewarding investors.

When Edward Snowden released fresh information about extended NSA surveillance, the reaction was swift, bipartisan, and one of indignation. Rarely in DC can you find something that both the left and right can agree with—except this program. But, as conventional wisdom often does, the revelations missed a key part of the story. Instead of wondering why the NSA conducted surveillance, the pertinent question should be: “Why did the U.S. government go to private industry?” What are Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), and Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) doing better than our most clandestine agency? And is there really such a thing as privacy on the internet?

Marketing loves big data
Many think of marketing as simply the sale of products to customers. This is true, but incomplete. Marketing is the exchange of information up to and including the sale of products. Companies relay brand information, value propositions, and price. Customers provide information in numerous ways other than just buying a product—enter big data.

Big data is the business of compiling data to detect trends—in the case of marketing, this means buying habits. From something as innocuous as a rewards card at your local grocer to your browsing history, you are constantly providing information to big data. Although the most tangible example of big data’s total capabilities is International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM)‘s Jeopardy-winning Watson, Google has an impressive big data operation in its own right.

I always feel like somebody’s watching me…
Big data starts with, well, data—and Google has that in abundance. Every Google search is based upon meta data to deliver the best results and Google analyzes each search to tweak this formula. With Google commanding around two-thirds of this market with consistently more than 10 billion searches monthly, that’s a lot of data. It’s a no-brainer why the NSA wanted information and records from Google’s users.

In addition, Google has run afoul of privacy advocates recently with two revelations: First, Google admitted in a court filing that anyone sending email to one of its 425 million Gmail users has “no reasonable expectation” their communications are confidential. Secondly, Google recently announced that it intends to make Google+ users’ names and photos visible to friends for the marketing of businesses and services in its “shared endorsements” campaign. And there’s no doubt that Google’s growing — the last quarter was a smashing success, pushing the company over $1,000 per share. However, Google+ isn’t even the biggest social network.

You know what’s cooler than a million users? A billion users
Facebook is sitting near all-time highs, mostly as a result of increased monetization of mobile and changing sentiment on the company’s growth prospects. How was Facebook able to monetize mobile more effectively? You can bet the story has to do with Facebook Exchange, or FBX.

Penn National Gaming, Par Capital: Paul Reeder & Edward Shapiro‘s Par Capital Management recently disclosed a decrease in its position in Penn National Gaming, Inc (NASDAQ:PENN), currently owning around 2.12 million shares, which represent 2.7% of its common stock. In an earlier filing, Par Capital reported holding almost 4.4 million shares, equivalent to 5.5% of the company.

Disclosure: none

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Activist Stilwell Picks Up Stake in Poage Bankshares

Mario Gabelli, Gamco Now Own 18% of Zep Inc

EJF Capital Ups Stake in Cape Bancorp

Hedge fund and insider trading are two types of sentiment that offer market-beating potential.

Insider buying activity has been shown to generate annual outperformance of about 7 percentage points, according to multiple empirical studies. With that being said, hedge fund data can be seen by following the link, and we'll take you through a few of the most important insider buys of the past couple weeks below.

Repros Therapeutics

Repros Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:RPRX) CFO Katherine Anderson bought 1,000 shares of the reproductive health company at a price of $23.77 each. The move came amid safety and efficacy results for Androxal, a drug design to increase testosterone in men, which in essence, preserves fertility. Since Anderson's move, shares of Repros have risen by 5% and if analysts' expectations regarding Androxal are correct, the stock has further upside. With clinical development costs representing a major portion of Repros' expenditures, the company is tied to the drug's fate, so it's clear which way one exec is betting.

KB Home

KB Home (NYSE:KBH), meanwhile, is in the middle of three insider purchases. Thomas Silk, SVP of Marketing and Communications at the company, bought 5,000 shares at $6.04 each, CEO Jeffrey Mezger snatched up 150,000 shares, and CFO Jeff Kaminski bought 15,000 shares. KB Home's stock price performed fairly well in the first half of 2013, but a revenue miss in its latest quarter has sent shares down by about 5% in the past month. The company's trio of bullish insiders makes the U.S.'s fifth-largest homebuilder worth watching.

Stilwell, Poage Bankshares: The stake of Poage Bankshares Inc (NASDAQ:PBSK) in Joseph Stilwell’s equity portfolio recently edged up to 318,471 shares, from 315,971 disclosed in Stilwell’s latest 13F. The aggregate value of shares held by the activist amounts to some $4.5 million at the current share price of the company. The new position amasses 9.9% of Poage’s outstanding shares.

Disclosure: none

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Mario Gabelli, Gamco Now Own 18% of Zep Inc

EJF Capital Ups Stake in Cape Bancorp

Brown Trout Management Initiates Exposure in Tower Financial

Gamco, Zep Inc: A couple of minutes ago, Mario Gabelli and Gamco Investors disclosed slightly upgrading their position in Zep, Inc. (NYSE:ZEP). In a filing with the SEC, Gabelli reported holding a stake that contains around 3.97 million shares of the company, up from 2.8 million shares disclosed in Gamco’s latest 13F. The new stake amasses almost 18% of the company.

Disclosure: none

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EJF Capital Ups Stake in Cape Bancorp

Daniel Gold's Hedge Fund is 3rd in a Week to Buy Arrowhead Research Stock

Carl Icahn Cuts WebMD Below 5%, No Longer an Activist Stake

EJF Capital, Cape Bancorp: Today, EJF Capital reported slightly increasing its exposure in Cape Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBNJ). In a filing with the SEC, EJF disclosed a passive stake in Cape Bancorp that contains 764,000 shares, versus 584,250 shares reported in the latest 13F. The new stake represents 6% of the company.

Disclosure: none

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Brown Trout Management Initiates Exposure in Tower Financial

A 6-Pack of Hedge Fund Moves to Take Note Of

Tom Brown's Second Curve is Bullish on Regional Management Corp

Brown Trout Management, Tower Financial: Brown Trout Management, managed by Steven Gerbel, just reported it is initiating a passive stake in Tower Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:TOFC). The position contains 241,063 shares, with an aggregate value of around $5.8 million, at the current stock price of the company. The stake represents 5.2% of the company.

Disclosure: none

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Ruby Tuesday insider trading: Ruby Tuesday, Inc. (NYSE:RT) made negative headlines recently when it announced its first quarter 2014 earnings. Nevertheless, some analysts claim, "management is repositioning the company and rolling out a value-oriented menu in hopes that they can get their core customer to return." Jill Golder seems confident, as she purchased 5,000 shares of common stock on Friday, at $6.05 per share, bringing her total holdings in the firm to 30,324 shares.

After Friday’s acquisition, the Senior Vice President for Finance had holdings amounting to approximately $183,460 when the market closed. This insider purchase comes as a surprise and could serve as a boost in confidence for the company’s stock, which is currently trading very near its 52-week low of $6 per share. While trading at 0.3 times its trailing sales, the company is available at a huge price discount of 87.5% relative to its industry average.

The price discount is indicative of Ruby Tuesday's problems and the 60% loss in share value the stock has experienced over the past three months. Some believe the firm can manage to turn things around and reclaim their customers, however, recent figures show a 10.4% decline in traffic. The firm announced declines in same-restaurant sales and seems to be sustaining its current share value only due to its real-estate assets.

Disclosure: Pablo Erbar holds no position in any stocks mentioned

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BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) may not be the most attractive stock for investors, but it’s definitely the most talked about. On Sep. 27 it announced its second-quarter results, with a net loss of $965 million. Soon after its dismal results, speculations swirled that many companies might want to purchase BlackBerry and outbid Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd (PINK:FRFHF)’s $4.7  billion bid.

The company’s true value
Currently, there are several potential bidders for BlackBerry, and the sudden interest isn’t because of its struggling handset business, but rather its vast patent portfolio. BlackBerry is now in talks with Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), SAP AG (NYSE:SAP), and Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) about selling all or parts of its business. BlackBerry’s patent portfolio is one of the most diverse in the technology industry, and covers a wide variety of areas such as security, messaging, and LTE.

Source: Envision

BlackBerry’s patent portfolio was ranked 82nd  in the U.S. top 100 patent portfolios by Intellectual Asset Management Magazine. It was also identified as one of 14 companies with “stand-out” portfolios. Its patents have a lifespan of roughly 12.1 years, much higher than Nortel’s 9.4 years and Motorola Solutions Inc (NYSE:MSI)’s 8.1 years. While there is no fixed market price for BlackBerry’s patents, several investment banks have valued it between $2.25  billion-$5 billion. BlackBerry’s 7,500 patents and 4,200 granted ones would give the buyer a huge competitive advantage in the current smartphone market.

Google is known for its ability to identify businesses that have potential to deliver future returns. In the case of Motorola, Google was willing to pay a significant premium to compete against Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). Right now, Google is flooded with lawsuits in the patent space and, therefore, needs to build a strong mobile patent portfolio. This makes BlackBerry’s patents, including the Nortel patent, a good investment option for Google. In 2011 , Google lost the Nortel patent auction to a consortium of Apple, Microsoft, and Research in Motion. Thus, through BlackBerry, Google would also gain access to part of Nortel’s 6,000 patents, along with BlackBerry’s patents, at a much cheaper price.

Falling sales of BB10 phones
After launching the BlackBerry operating system, or OS 7, it took the company a year and a half to develop OS BB10 to get back in the smartphone race with competitors Google and Apple. Its investments and efforts aren’t paying off. The company incurred an inventory writedown of $934 million in the second quarter of 2013. The inventory writedown was mostly due to Z10, which it launched to compete against iPhone and Android devices. The company sold 5.9 million units in the second quarter, of which only 1.7 million were BB10 devices.

To improve sales of its BB10 phones, the company planned  to implement further sales incentives with its carrier and distributor partners. Thus, the prices of BlackBerry Z10 phones have been reduced, resulting in different pricing for unsold inventory. This has caused the company to defer revenue of BB10 devices and record low sales in the second quarter, because to realize revenue from unsold phones, the price would have to have been determined beforehand.