February 2015 Performance

February turned out to be another strong month. I was able to generate a net gain of 7.03%, which I certainly was not expecting. The majority of this gain was attributed to my holdings in Apple (Ticker: AAPL), VISA (Ticker: V), MasterCard (Ticker: MA), Constellation Brands (Ticker: STZ) and even Qiagen (Ticker: QGEN). These are my long term holdings, which I pretty much leave alone.

I have entered into a short Put position in Salix Pharmaceutical (Ticker: SLXP) and Valeant (Ticker: VRX) with the expectation that Valeant completes the acquisition of Salix shortly. I really like Valeant (with Michael Pearson as one of the best CEO's around) and entered a short Put with a shot at getting some shares at an attractive price. Other than that my only other merger arb / special situation positions are a short Put in Hospira (Ticker: HSP) and the Casa Ley CVRs. I’ll probably add to the Hospira position, but I want to get a good feel on the regulatory review before making my move.

I usually don’t go for the high flyers, but I did initiate a position in Habit Restaurant (Ticker: HABT). I just see a huge run way for this company to expand throughout the country. I’m looking at holding Habit for many years. As they say, time will tell…

2015 Performance Year to Date = +10.43% with the running monthly returns as follows:

January +3.4%
February +7.03%