Tepper’s Appaloosa Management cuts back on some big energy bets in Q2

Appaloosa Management headed by David Tepper cut back on some of his biggest energy sector bets in the second quarter. Reuters photo by Brendan McDermid.

Appaloosa Management cut stakes in Williams Partners, Energy Transfer Partners

BOSTON, Aug 12 (Reuters) – Billionaire hedge fund manager David Tepper cut back on some of his biggest bets in the energy sector and sold off other names during the second quarter, according to a regulatory filing on Friday.

Tepper’s Appaloosa Management cut its stakes in Williams Partners and Energy Transfer Partners by nearly 30 percent and exited Range Resources Corp. and Cabot Oil and Gas Corp., the filing shows.

Investment managers are required to say what U.S. stocks they owned every quarter. While the filing is released 45 days after the end of the quarter and is backward-looking, it is closely watched nonetheless because other investors look to big hedge funds’ moves for possible investment trends.

Tepper, who moved from New Jersey to Florida, where he receives more favorable tax treatment, made a new bet on Quorum Health Corp but slashed his investment in healthcare company HCA by 61 percent, down to 1.2 million shares. He also significantly increased his bet on Allergan by adding 981,700 shares and owned 1.2 million at the end of the quarter.

Valeant, the embattled drug company, was in Tepper’s portfolio for only a short time. He sold 945,000 shares in the second quarter, liquidating the stake he bought in the first quarter.

(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Editing by Dan Grebler)