March 2019 Performance

The strength of this market continues to amaze me. The market just takes bad news in stride and just climb a wall of worry. I really did nothing for March other than dabble with a small special situation trade with Eli Lilly’s (Ticker: LLY) spin off of Elanco (Ticker: ELAN). The portfolio was able to generate a positive gain of 5.06% for the month.

In the merger arb space, I’m still playing Sparks Therapeutics (Ticker: ONCE) via Short Puts and looking for a resolution this week. If all goes well with the antitrust review, this tender offer could possibly close this week. I still cannot see any antitrust issues with Roche’s (Ticker: RHHBY) acquisition of Sparks Therapeutics.

The other big news this week is Constellation Brands (Ticker: STZ) earnings release on Thursday. The stock sold off on the last earnings report due to weakness in the low end wine segment. Maybe they will announce the divestiture of their low end wine portfolio with this earnings report. I continue to like this company based on the anticipated free cash flow.

That’s all I have to report…

2019 Performance = +17.00% with the running monthly returns as follows:

January +7.4%
February +3.7%
March +5.06%