Sandler O’Neill Asset Management reduced its position in Poage Bankshares Inc (NASDAQ:PBSK) to  250,000 shares, from 314,000 shares held at the end of the second quarter, a new filing with the SEC showed. In this way, the fund reduced its position in the company to 8.08%.

At the same time, the president of the fund, Terry Maltese, send a letter to Mr. J. Thomas Rupert, Poage’s Chairman of the Board in which he expressed his discontent regarding Poage’s plans to acquire Town Square Financial.

See the letter below:

Jeffrey Smith‘s Starboard Value disclosed in a newly amended 13D that it has entered into a Sales Trading Plan Agreement with Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, under the terms of which Starboard intends to sell 3.7 million shares of Integrated Device Technology Inc (NASDAQ:IDTI). Currently, Starboard owns 12.5 million shares of Integrated Device Technology, which represent 8.4% of the company.

Disclosure: none

Recommended Reading:

Marc Lasry Sells Some of YRC Worldwide Stake

Bill Gates Now Holds 11.8% of Kior

Wynnefield Capital Increases Position in DLH Holdings

Marc Lasry, the manager of Avenue Capital, disclosed in a new form 4 selling off some of his YRC Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:YRCW) shares. In two transactions, Avenue Capital sold 200,000 shares for $9.88 apiece, and later 349,881 shares, at a price of $9.33 apiece. In its latest 13F, Avenue Capital held over 25.2 million shares of YRC.

Disclosure: none

Recommended Reading:

Bill Gates Now Holds 11.8% of Kior

Wynnefield Capital Increases Position in DLH Holdings

Orbimed Follows Baker Bros and Buys Some Mirati Therapeutics Shares

The founder of Microsoft Corporation, Bill Gates, through his fund Gates Ventures, reported initiating a 11.8% stake in KiOR Inc (NASDAQ:KIOR). The stake amasses around 7.4 million shares, and represent 11.8% of the company.

Disclosure: none

Recommended Reading:

Wynnefield Capital Increases Position in DLH Holdings

Orbimed Follows Baker Bros and Buys Some Mirati Therapeutics Shares

Mario Gabelli Takes +5% Stakes in Global Sources Ltd and Belo Corp

In a new form 4 filed with the SEC, Nelson Obus‘ Wynnefield Capital reported buying some shares of DLH Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:DLHC). According to the filing, Wynnefield added 221,846 shares to its holdings, with the purchase price amounting slightly above $1 apiece. Following three transactions, Wynnefield now owns almost 4.4 million shares of DLH.

Yesterday, Wynnefield disclosed increasing its stake in Telos Corp (OTCMKTS:TLSRP) to 400,222 shares, equal to 12.6% of the company.

Disclosure: none

Recommended Reading:

Wynnefield Capital Increases Position in DLH Holdings

Hedge Fund News: Jim Chanos' Pupils, George Soros & Paul Singer

Longbow Securities Makes a Couple Rare Moves in NQ Mobile

Orbimed Advisors, a fund focused on the healthcare sector, led by Samuel Isaly, disclosed minutes ago purchasing 125,000 shares of Mirati Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRTX). The fund purchased the shares in one transaction, at a price of $17.50 apiece, increasing its position to a total of 1.3 million shares.

Through the acquisition, Orbimed follows Baker Bros., which recently disclosed buying 400,000 shares of Mirati.

Disclosure: none

Recommended Reading:

Mario Gabelli Takes +5% Stakes in Global Sources Ltd and Belo Corp

Howard Marks Discloses 6.8% of Contango Oil & Gas, Affiliates Close Out of Crimson Exploration

4 Hedge Funds Heavily Invested in Apple's Fate

In a new filing, Mario Gabelli and his fund, Gamco Investors, reported owning an aggregate amount of over 1.7 million shares of Global Sources Ltd. (Bermuda) (NASDAQ:GSOL). The position represents 5.05% of the Global Sources’ common stock. In its latest 13F, Gamco disclosed holding 349,000 shares of the company.

In a second filing, Gamco reported an aggregate amount of 5.2 million shares of Belo Corp (NYSE:BLC), which amass around 5.4% of the company. Gamco owned some 630,000 shares at the end of the second quarter.

Disclosure: none

Recommended Reading:

Howard Marks Discloses 6.8% of Contango Oil & Gas, Affiliates Close Out of Crimson Exploration

4 Hedge Funds Heavily Invested in Apple's Fate

Hedge Fund News: Jim Chanos' Pupils, George Soros & Paul Singer

Howard Marks‘ Oaktree Capital Management now holds around 1.3 million shares of Contango Oil & Gas Company (NYSEMKT:MCF), a new filing with the SEC revealed. The position held by Oaktree represents 6.8% of the company. At the same time, Oaktree’s managing director, B. James Ford was appointed to the Board of Directors of Contango.

In a second filing, several of Oaktree’s affiliates disclosed closing out their positions in Crimson Exploration Inc. (NASDAQ:CXPO). Oaktree Capital Management, which in the latest 13F disclosed holding 15.5 million shares of the company, was not mentioned in the filing.

Disclosure: none

Recommended Reading:

4 Hedge Funds Heavily Invested in Apple's Fate

Longbow Securities Makes a Couple Rare Moves in NQ Mobile

Tiger Global Ups Position in Carter's to 10.4%

Best gas mileage: Most drivers have got accustomed with the ever increasing gas prices, mainly because they are really few options one can choose in this situation. Riding a bike to work is not feasible on long distances or bad weather. Hybrid cars might be great for both your wallet and the environment, but they do come with a premium price tag that not everybody can afford.

So what do you do in order to cut back on what you pay for gas?

Well, ideally, you should have looked for a car would good gas mileage when you bought your first vehicle. Even if you haven't, you can certainly take this very important aspect into account next time you are looking to buy a car.

We would like to present you with a list we have compiled of the top 9 cars with the best gas mileage, in a style similar to our coverage of the biggest boats in the world. Or, in other words, cars that run the most miles on one gallon of gas. This indicator, which was used in the ranking of the cars, is called miles per gallon or mpg for short. All cars on our list have a mpg of at least 40 on highways. We've also included the price tag for each of the models, so that you can better find something within your price range. Let's take a look at the countdown.

Lowest cost of living: In today's economy, most of us will try to come up with ways that will help us spend less and maybe save up some money. But sometimes, the best way to make the most of your money is by moving to another country, with a less expensive cost of living.

We would like to present you with a list we have compiled of the top 20 countries in the world with the lowest cost of living. The 20 countries were ranked according to the consumer price index for 2013. This indicator represents the relative price of consumer goods, excluding mortgage and rent.

The figures in this countdown are correlated with New York City, US, meaning that all indicators for New York should be 100%. If a country has an index of 80%, it means that the people from that particular nation spend approximately 20% less on consumer goods than New York residents. The rent index estimates the cost for renting a real estate property. The grocery index is an estimate of how much residents from a certain country pay for grocery products. Finally, the restaurant index estimates the cost for meals or drinks at dinning places, restaurants, bars, or pubs.

Once again, these indicators are also correlated to those of New York City. For example, Nepal, which has emerged as this year's least expensive country, has a rent index of 3.66, meaning that it residents pay almost 96% for rent than people living in New York.

Looking for a place to retire? Or just curious about how people in other countries handle their finances? Let's take a look at the countdown, in a style similar to our coverage of the biggest mines in the world.

Check out the countries with the lowest cost of living on the following pages:

The radio industry has been on fire lately. Traditional radio is being challenged by online stations. Online stations are becoming increasingly popular, as they can customize their content according to the user’s preferences. As a result, already more than half of Americans who go online listen to Internet radio services, and more than 55% of radio listeners feel that music on traditional radio is “not as good as it used to be.” At the same time, online radio companies such as Pandora Media (NYSE:P) , Spotify and Last.fm are experiencing massive user growth.

With more than 75 million people listening to its personalized radio stations throughout the U.S., Pandora Media has heavy exposure to the emerging online radio industry. However, an epic battle for the Internet radio business is about to start, as important challengers such as Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)  release their own radios, while traditional players like Sirius XM  – the largest subscription radio broadcaster in the U.S. – acquire premium content and reduce prices to remain competitive. In this challenging context, how does Pandora Media plan to protect its business against such competitors?

Source: Pandora Media, Investors Relations

Pandora’s amazing technology
Founded in 2000, Pandora uses amazing technology for automated music recommendation: the innovative “music genome” algorithm.

This algorithm defines a song according to hundreds of keywords (like “metal influences” or “romantic”). A song is described by a vector containing these keywords, and these vectors are used to create lists of similar songs. Because a professional musician analyzes the song to describe it in keywords for more than half an hour, Pandora’s algorithm produces excellent recommendations.

Naturally, Pandora’s superior technology helped the company to gain active users quickly, reaching 72 million users in the second quarter of fiscal year 2014.

Increasing competition
However, even a company as innovative as Pandora isn’t free from competition. This was clearly understood after Apple showed some preliminary numbers for its recently launched iTunes Radio on Oct. 22. Since its release, more than 20 million iOS 7 users listened to Apple’s radio. And roughly one billion songs were listened to in a single month. Furthermore, considering that 50% of Pandora’s users access the service from an iOS device, iTunes Radio is a major threat for the company.

On the other hand, with more than 23 million subscribers in the U.S, radio broadcaster Sirius XM could also be affected by the arrival of iTunes Radio. Notice also that, if compared with most online radio services, Sirius XM services are more expensive.

Charging a price premium allowed Sirius XM to enjoy high margins for many years. Furthermore, in an industry that has traditionally seen high barriers to entry, Sirius XM’s substantial scale advantages gave the firm strong economic moat.

Times change, people change. Increasing wireless access may force Sirius XM to adopt a new business model to remain competitive. In the meanwhile, the company is trying to differentiate its content as much as possible by paying more for streaming content (Oprah radio, Howard Stern, and other exclusive channels).

The plan
To prepare for the release of iTunes Radio, Pandora began reducing its exposure to iOS devices in the first quarter of 2013, when it started offering in-app subscriptions through Google devices. Furthermore, the company recently removed its 40-hour mobile listening limit for free mobile listeners, despite increasing royalty fees. This aggressive move is aimed at preventing non-premium users from completely changing Pandora with iTunes Radio, and should protect Pandora’s ad revenue. According to eMarketer, Pandora is the third largest generator of mobile ad revenue, only behind Google and Facebook.

Pandora is also exploring opportunities in new segments, like the in-vehicle market, which could allow the advertisement-based company to expand its subscription revenue considerably. At the moment, this space is dominated by Sirius XM, which has its satellite radios installed in 70% of new vehicles, and generates most of its revenue through subscriptions. However, despite its late start and Sirius XM’s dominance, Pandora reached 2.5 million unique activations through cars in June this year.

Final Foolish takeaway
Although Apple’s new iTunes Radio has seen great early reception, it may not be a “Pandora killer,” as many writers have mentioned. Ultimately, Pandora has vast experience in the field, and uses an amazing algorithm for recommending users music they truly like. However, in the short term, the company may see a decrease in its user base or user engagement metrics, as some of its users may move temporarily to iTunes Radio in order to experience the new service.

The article How Pandora Plans to Protect Its Business From iTunes Radio originally appeared on Fool.com.

Adrian Campos has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Apple and Pandora Media. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple. 

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

This series, brought to you by Yahoo! Finance, looks at which upgrades and downgrades make sense, and which ones investors should act on. Today, our headlines feature downgrades for both financial information website Bankrate (NYSE:RATE) and at-home soda fountain SodaStream (NASDAQ:SODA) . But on the plus side …

Calling Avon a buy
Independent analyst Standpoint Research upgraded shares of Avon Products (NYSE:AVP) to “buy” this morning, assigning the beauty products maker a $22 price target in the wake of this morning’s nickel-miss on earnings.

Avon reported earning $0.14 per share in Q3, $0.05 shy of analysts’ expected $0.19. Revenues of $2.3 billion likewise missed the mark of $2.45 billion. So why is Standpoint upgrading the shares after this news? Largely, as cited on StreetInsider.com, because “Avon is down 22% today on 10X its average daily volume,” putting the shares “where they were twenty (20) years ago when revenues were just a few bln per year.”

Yet today, Avon is a $10 billion-plus company by annual sales, and raking in more than $300 million in annual free cash flow. That certainly makes the stock sound like a relative bargain. But is it a bargain, period?

I vote no. Indeed, count me (in spirit, at least) with the investors who are selling off Avon stock today. When I look at the $300 million and change in cash profits that Avon generated over the past 12 months — to say nothing of the GAAP losses it’s racked up over the past two years — the company still looks overpriced at a market cap of $7.6 billion. This works out to a price-to-free cash flow ratio in excess of 25, even after today’s 20%-plus sell-off. Even if the stock does turn around, and Avon ultimately achieves the 21% earnings growth target that most analysts assign it, I think the stock costs too much. As much as it’s fallen already, I think there’s more downside ahead.

Aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?
So, if that’s the verdict on today’s featured upgrade, surely we can expect little out of the two stocks that rival analyst Stifel Nicolaus downgraded this morning: consumer-facing stocks Bankrate and SodaStream. Right?

Let’s find out, starting with Bankrate.

Yesterday, Bankrate missed estimates pretty badly, reporting Q3 earnings of $0.13 per share, versus the $0.15 that Wall Street had anticipated. Adding to the bad news, the company advised that its CEO, Thomas Evans, is stepping down to be replaced by current COO Kenneth Esterow. Stifel Nicolaus responded to these developments by pulling its “buy” rating from the stock today, and downgrading to “hold.” And Stifel may be right about that.

Based on its most recent financial data, Bankrate is now officially an unprofitable company, having lost roughly $0.06 per share over the past year. As such, the fact that many analysts think the company capable of 20% long-term earnings growth holds little weight for me — because really, how do you “grow” negative earnings, anyway?

Indeed, even applying the anticipated 20% growth rate to the $59 million in real free cash flow that the company generates annually, the stock looks overvalued at today’s valuation of 30 times FCF. I think Stifel’s right to downgrade it after yesterday’s bad news.

SodaStream fizzling?
Last and least, we come to SodaStream, a stock whose 55% gain over the past year is nearly as fizzy as Bankrate’s near-90% rise. SodaStream shares are tumbling today, however, despite the fact that alone among the stocks we’re discussing today, it actually beat earnings estimates this week.

Specifically, SodaStream reported earning $0.76 per share in fiscal Q3, $0.04 ahead of consensus estimates. SodaStream further promised investors that by the time the year is out, it will have achieved 30% revenue growth over 2012, and 23% better net income. So… why is Stifel recommending that investors sell the shares?

Call me a skeptic, but I think it’s because the company’s not nearly so profitable as investors think it is. On the one hand, yes, SodaStream says it has earned nearly $49 million over the past 12 months, its most impressive result ever. But free cash flow at the firm has turned decidedly negative, with SodaStream now burning through cash at the rate of more than $30 million a year — a result that belies the company’s supposed “profitability.”

Ultimately, I think these results are going to catch up with SodaStream, and begin dragging down the “GAAP earnings” numbers that have investors so excited about the stock. Unless and until I see the company generating real cash profit from its business, I’m going to have to side with Stifel on this one, and agree: SodaStream looks like a “sell” to me.

Fool contributor Rich Smith has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends SodaStream. The Motley Fool owns shares of SodaStream.

The article Thursday’s Top Upgrades (and Downgrades) originally appeared on Fool.com.

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average doesn’t strictly reflect unemployment rates like my weight-loss progress does my donut consumption (curse you, Bavarian cream!). The economy is a complex beast with many moving parts, all of which can raise or lower stock prices at any given time. But low unemployment certainly does tend to reflect rising Dow values, and vice versa. Here’s how the two market metrics have interacted over the last 15 years:

US Unemployment Rate data by YCharts.

From this perspective, the American economy seems to be on track for a complete recovery. The Dow is stutter-stepping to new all-time highs on a monthly basis recently, and the jobs lost in the 2008 meltdown keep trickling back. The day-to-day progress isn’t always impressive, but jobless rates are undeniably sinking closer to the 7% threshold.

Based on the recent history and projected future of American unemployment rates, I would argue that our economy is set up to thrive for the foreseeable future.

Crazy, right? I must not have gotten the memo about debt ceilings, sequestrations, TARP tapering, and a gazillion other potential economy-killers. I assure you, I’ve heard about all these threats and acknowledge that they might trip up America’s recovery efforts if handled incorrectly.

But I refuse to use worst-case scenarios as an economic baseline. And if we do get caught in one or more of these bear traps, even the worst disasters don’t last forever. In the long run, the Dow also rises.

People far smarter than I seem to agree. The International Monetary Fund sees American unemployment rates plunging for several more years. By 2018, we should be back to jobless rates not seen since late 2007. Let me show you the numbers, with a few other major economies thrown in for a sense of scale:

European scapegoats Spain and Greece would sell their olive farms for single-digit unemployment rates. Among more stable economies, we took the 2008 crisis harder than the U.K. but have already crossed below the British unemployment rate.

You could see Japan as a role model here, but do keep in mind that the low Japanese joblessness is a matter of national pride. When Japan hit a 5.7% unemployment rate in 2011, it was the highest figure since World War II. These ultra-low figures are a nice ideal, but the government will make almost any sacrifice — low economic growth, extreme interest rates, you name it — to keep it that way. This approach isn’t likely to fly in America, or in most Western nations, for that matter.

Back to the U.S. again. The 30 stalwarts on the Dow are pulling their weight for the recovery, as the elite market-leaders should. In the deepest, darkest part of the recession, the current Dow members cut only 1.4% of their full-time payrolls between their 2008 and 2009 fiscal years. And since then, they’ve expanded their headcounts by 8.7%. That’s 520,000 jobs just between these 30 companies.

Let me point out a couple of particular heavyweights. Home Depot cut 10% of its workforce when the crisis hit but has bounced back strongly. All told, the home improvement chain now has a 54% longer payroll than it did before the cuts in 2008.

Have you considered what the pending Obamacare policies mean for unemployed health-insurance analysts? That’s right: Untold millions of Americans will need back-end insurance support, and the exchanges require some brainpower as well. UnitedHealth added 34,000 jobs last year alone, expanding its payroll by one-third. Since 2009, the employee count has soared 77%.

So long as the Dow royalty keeps leading by example, I don’t see why the IMF’s rosy unemployment projections would be wrong. In fact, the most recent 7.2% reading is already stronger than the IMF’s 7.4% forecast for the end of 2013.

I expect the good job-creation times to keep rolling (with the occasional short-term hiccup along the way), and the Dow to follow suit. Lower jobless claims generally mean higher Dow levels, and that’s exactly where we’re headed today.

The article What Unemployment Figures Can Tell You About the Dow’s Future originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Anders Bylund holds no position in any company mentioned. Check out Anders’ bio and holdings or follow him on Twitter and Google+. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) and Home Depot. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended creating a diagonal call position in UnitedHealth Group.

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

 

“Seriously, Ben Bernanke? You think that policy decision looks cool?” © 2004 Paramount Pictures

Yesterday’s market moves:
Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEX: ^DJI): 15,618, -62 (-0.39%)
S&P 500: 1,763, -9 (-0.49%)

The article News From the Fed Surprises Investors originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Jack Kramer has no position in any stocks mentioned. Fool contributor Nick Martell has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Facebook and General Motors. The Motley Fool owns shares of Facebook.

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

There are more than 8,000 hedge funds in existence today, and of this group, we at Insider Monkey track close to 600 of the best and brightest. The best picks of the best hedge fund managers have market-beating potential (see how we returned 47.6% in one year), and within this group, there are many ways to parse the data.

This week, we've covered some important tech topics in particular, like why Warren Buffett probably won't buy Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) and the peculiarities of Longbow Securities' moves in NQ Mobile Inc (ADR) (NYSE:NQ). One subject that has been flying under the radar, though, is Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and the hedge funds that surround it.

According to one Apple news site, the tech giant's latest earnings release has been met with mostly optimism on Wall Street, especially from JPMorgan's Mark Moskowitz. Moskowitz expects Apple's current share price to hit $600 by December of 2014, primarily based on strong iPhone sales, the iPad's potential in future quarters, and gross margins that are "good enough for long-term investors."

With that in mind, we thought it'd be useful to run through the hedge fund managers that have stayed committed to Apple over the long run. Here are the four biggest bulls that have held the stock for at least two years:

David Einhorn

David Einhorn first bought Apple in the second quarter of 2010 and in the three years since, the manager of Greenlight Capital has upped his stake by nearly eightfold. While Tim Cook and the rest of Apple's leadership didn't adopt Einhorn's iPref idea, his latest Q3 shareholder letter reveals he'll likely remain bullish here for the "longer-term."

David Shaw

Another billionaire, David E. Shaw, has held shares of Apple for the better part of the last decade. The manager of D.E. Shaw & Co doubled his exposure to the stock in the last round of 13F filings, and it actually represents the largest long-only holding in his entire equity portfolio. Shaw and Einhorn have the two largest Apple stakes of the funds we track, both of which represent nearly $1 billion in market value apiece.

Philippe Laffont

Philippe Laffont's Coatue Management, meanwhile, has been a major Apple investor since the fourth quarter of 2004. Laffont founded his tech-focused hedge fund in 1999 after working for the legendary Julian Robertson, and Apple was his top stock pick for all of 2011 and most of 2012 before he slashed over half of his stake in the fourth quarter.

The fund manager now owns over $600 million in Apple stock and has recouped all of the shares he sold at the end of last year. While we don't know exactly when Laffont cut his stake in 2012, it's evident that he avoided much of the swoon that plagued investors who stuck with their gut, and actually bought back when shares were cheaper.

Ken Fisher

Although he's technically not a hedge fund manager, Ken Fisher is a prominent investor worth tracking. Fisher Asset Management oversees nearly $40 billion in equity investments alone, and while it has been a long-term shareholder of Apple, the firm has only recently upped its stake to significant levels. At the halfway point of 2012, Fisher held $50 million worth of Apple stock; today, that number is more than $600 million.

It's no secret that Fisher likes growth stocks that also trade at reasonable valuations, so we can understand why he's bullish here. Apple trades at a PEG ratio near 0.9, and the sell-side still expects it to generate earnings growth of 15% a year over the next half-decade. That forecast trumps peers like Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), and it's cheaper than both.

Disclosure: none

Recommended Reading:

4 Things You Need to Know About Apple Earnings

Carl Icahn Sounds Off On Apple Again, Says He Won't Try To Remove Board of Directors

Is Icahn's Case for Apple at $1,250 Flawed?

Kynikos Alumni Start Hedge Fund Betting on Declining Stocks (Bloomberg)
Two former analysts of Jim Chanos's Kynikos Associates Ltd., which rose to fame shorting Enron Corp., started a new London-based hedge fund earlier this month to bet on falling stocks globally. The Arhammar Short Alpha Fund Ltd., which started on Oct. 10 and is backed by the second-largest Baltic bank SEB AB (SEBA), will invest in 30 to 50 stocks which are expected to underperform the market, co-managers Mike Monnelly and David Bonnier said, declining to specify the amount of capital the fund has raised.

Ex-Credit Suisse traders return to sellside with Nomura (eFinancialNews)
Carlo Ramirez and Olivier Garcia, who left Credit Suisse Group AG (NYSE:CS) in 2011 to set up a hedge fund, joined Nomura in London earlier this month, according to people close to the situation. Two former colleagues at the fund, Dilbagh Kalsi and Thierry Guilhot, have also joined. Ramirez is a former head of Asian trading for equity and equity derivatives at Credit Suisse, while Garcia previously led Asia-Pacific exotic trading at the Swiss bank, according to a Bloomberg article in 2012. They incorporated RG Investment Capital at Companies House in late 2011 and won regulatory authorisation in May 2012.

Fortress Third-Quarter Profit Rises 1.6% on Investments (Bloomberg)
Fortress Investment Group LLC (NYSE:FIG), the first publicly traded private-equity and hedge-fund manager in the U.S., said third-quarter profit rose 1.6 percent as its investments gained in value. Pretax distributable earnings, which exclude some compensation costs and other items, increased to $65 million, or 13 cents a share, from $64 million, or 12 cents, a year earlier, New York-based Fortress said today in a statement. The results missed the 15-cent per-share average profit estimate of seven analysts in a Bloomberg survey. …Both The Blackstone Group L.P. (NYSE:BX) and KKR & Co. L.P. (NYSE:KKR) reported higher third-quarter earnings this month as their holdings appreciated.

Hedge funds face automation challenge (Risk)
For an industry that has been so quick to deploy cutting-edge technology in its trading strategies, hedge funds remain crustily old-fashioned when it comes to other parts of the business. Procedures for handling and processing investor subscriptions have barely changed in decades, and are based largely on error-prone manual input. That may have to change. A host of new rules – from the US Dodd-Frank Act and European Market Infrastructure Regulation, to the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (Fatca) and Europe's Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive – increase the reporting burden on hedge funds, which will have to achieve greater automation to have any chance of complying, observers say.

Paul Singer: Obamacare rollout a ‘fiasco’ (CNBC)
Hedge fund manager and billionaire conservative Paul Singer thinks the Affordable Care Act is a disaster. “It is no surprise, given the highly ideological component of its founding impulse as well as the lack of executive experience in its inventors, that the rollout of the national electronic network just weeks ago would turn into a (possibly temporary, but more likely ongoing) fiasco,” Singer wrote in a letter to Elliott Management investors obtained by CNBC.com “(It) may just be the introduction to the surprises and frustrations that are likely to befall tens of millions of Americans in the next few years.”

Why Japan is great for stock pickers now (CNBC)

In a new 13G filed earlier today with the SEC, Longbow Securities reported an 8.04% stake in NQ Mobile Inc (ADR) (NYSE:NQ). Shares of the Wi-Fi and Wi-Max company have lost over 40% in the last ten days on allegations by Muddy Waters that NQ is a fraud.

UPDATE: In a second filing, which came about an hour later, Longbow reported selling off its entire position in NQ. The date of the event for the second filing is October 28, which is only 3 days after Longbow purchased shares of NQ.

So, the move made by Longbow into NQ was a very short-term trade. It is odd that both moves have been reported publicly in such a short amount of time, but then again, seeing a stock drop nearly half of its market value in a couple days is a rare event too.

Disclosure: none

Chase Coleman and Feroz Dewan’s hedge fund Tiger Global Management just reported increasing its passive stake in Carter’s, Inc. (NYSE:CRI) to 5.65 million shares, from 4.00 million shares disclosed in its latest 13F. The current position held by Tiger Global in Carter’s represents 10.4% of the company’s common stock.

Carter’s net income declined by 4.7% on the year to $2.8 million in the third quarter. Consolidated net sales went up by 13.7% to $760.2 million.

Andreas Halvorsen‘s Viking Global is also a shareholder of Carter’s, with its stake amassing almost 3.0 million at the end of the second quarter of 2013.

Disclosure: none

Recommended Reading:

Moore Global's London Arm Slices Exposure to Helphire Group

Why Warren Buffett Won't Buy Twitter

Billionaire Eddie Lampert Cuts AutoNation Position, Still Holds a Boatload

The London branch of Louis Bacon‘s hedge fund Moore Global Investments reduced its position in Helphire Group plc (LON:HHR) to some 70.6 million shares, from 106.6 million held earlier. In this way, Moore Europe Capital Management, LLP cut its exposure in the company to 4.52% of its voting rights.

Disclosure: none

Recommended Reading:

Why Warren Buffett Won't Buy Twitter

Billionaire Eddie Lampert Cuts AutoNation Position, Still Holds a Boatload

Keith Meister's Corvex Capital Reveals a 7% Stake in Fidelity National Financial

It's widely assumed that Warren Buffett doesn't invest in technology stocks, but in recent years, this belief has contrasted with reality. After accounting for zero percent of his equity portfolio at the end of 2010, the tech sector now makes up one sixth of Buffett's stock holdings. At Insider Monkey, we've discovered that hedge funds and other prominent investors' best stock picks exhibit market-beating potential, so it's worth paying attention to these developments.

In the case of Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway, they’re not your typical technology investors. They follow a very strict set of rules when selecting investments in this space, which, through our observations, boil down to finding tech companies that: (1) trade at verycheap multiples, (2) pay a dividend, and (3) have sustainable product offerings that will safeguard their survival over the next 15 to 20 years.

With this in mind, the next logical question in many Buffettologists' minds is: will the Oracle buy shares of Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) once it becomes a publicly traded entity?

This was the same question many Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) enthusiasts asked after its IPO last year and to no surprise, many mega-investors bought in. Buffett didn't, however, and it is evident that Facebook broke all three of the rules described above. The stock traded at more than 70 times earnings upon going public and there simply wasn't any assurance that it wouldn't go the route of MySpace, Digg, Xanga and the rest of social media's fallen giants. It also didn't offer a dividend, and still doesn't to this day.

Twitter faces all three of the same problems.

According to most estimates, Twitter will be valued near $11 billion when it goes public, giving it a per share value between $19 and $20. At this price, the company will theoretically trade at about 18.3 times this year's estimated revenue, which most conservative analysts expect to be around $600 million.

Facebook, meanwhile, is valued at a price-to-sales multiple near this mark, while LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD) is also in the same vicinity. It's unreasonable to expect that Buffett would be attracted to a valuation in this range if he hasn't been before.

Equally as important, we also expect that the billionaire will take issue with Twitter's outlook over the next 15 to 20 years. While some may argue that the micro blogging service can generate more advertising revenue than a Facebook or a LinkedIn for example, there's still no guarantee that Twitter will be around in two decades. Obviously, there's no such thing as 100% certainty in any industry, but there are fewer risks facing Buffett's favorite investments, like Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC) and The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO), than there are to anysocial media company.

Putting the final nail in the proverbial coffin, we also know that from Twitter's S-1 filing, it has no plans to declare dividends "in the foreseeable future."

So, if Warren Buffett won't buy Twitter, what stock is responsible for the majority of his investment in the tech sector?

As reported in his latest 13F filing, the answer is International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM). Buffett and Berkshire hold almost 15% of their $89 billion equity portfolio in the information technology giant, and it meets all three of our aforementioned criteria. IBM trades at a mere 9.9 times forward earnings, has five diversified business segments from IT infrastructure to software, and it pays a dividend yield above 2%.

Disclosure: none

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