10 hot insider, hedge fund dispatches this week: Buffett, Burry

Insider and hedge fund activity can serve as useful bellwethers for investors. Here are some of the biggest such moves from the past week, as first reported on InvestingPro+.

Hedge fund moves to watch:

1. "Big Short" fund manager Michael Burry's Scion Asset Management revealed he has added five new companies to his portfolio. Burry, best known for his short position against the housing market ahead of the financial crash in 2008, added new stakes in Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings Inc (NYSE:AJRD), Charter Communications (NASDAQ:CHTR), CoreCivic (NYSE:CXW), Liberty Latin America Ltd (NASDAQ:LILA), and Qurate Retail Group (NASDAQ:QRTEA).

Burry has previously tweeted out a number of warnings to investors regarding a further decline in the stock market. In the second quarter, he ditched his entire portfolio, which included a stake in Facebook (NASDAQ:META) parent Meta Platforms, replacing them with a position in Geo Group (NYSE:GEO).

Aerojet climbed 4.8% for the week; Charter slipped 4.6%; Corecivic rose 12.9% for the week; Liberty broke even; and Qurate added 5.8%.

2. Activist investor TCI Fund Management has called on Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) to cut costs by lowering its headcount and reduce losses in its self-driving unit Waymo, saying the Google parent needs to adjust to an era of slower growth. The fund, an investor in Alphabet since 2017 with a $6 billion stake, said the company had "too many employees and cost per employee is too high." Alphabet Class A shares were up 2.5% for the week.

3. Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRKa) (NYSE:BRKb) took a new 5,795,906-share stake in Louisiana-Pacific (NYSE:LPX). Louisiana-Pacific shares rose 4.4% for the week; Berkshire-Hathaway Class B shares ticked fractionally higher.

Biggest insider trades:

4. Porch Group Inc (NASDAQ:PRCH) COO, Matthew Neagle, bought 315,000 shares in the company on 11/10/22 at $1.0462. Shares jumped 58.8% to $1.62.

5. Coty (NYSE:COTY) Director, Olivier Goudet, bought 200,000 shares in the company from 11/10/22-11/14/22 at prices from $7.3476-$7.5597. The stock climbed 2% for the week.

6. Datadog (NASDAQ:DDOG), Inc. Director, Matthew Jacobson, bought 296,965 shares in the company, or $20 million worth, at prices from $66.9713 - $67.8625. Shares were bought through ICONIQ. Shares were off 5.9% for the week.

7. WW International (NASDAQ:WW), Inc. saw several insider buys: Director, Raymond Debbane, bought 75,000 shares on 11/10/22 at $4.2674; Director, Jonas Fajgenbaum, bought 29,250 shares on 11/10/22 at $4.2694; and Director, Denis Kelly, bought 10,000 shares on 11/10/22 at $4.23. Shares sank 11.5% for the week.

8. Cronos Group (NASDAQ:CRON) director, Jason Marc Adler via Gotham Green Fund, bought 280,860 shares from 11/15-22-11/16/22 at $2.9656-$3.0963. Shares gained 1.3% for the week.

9. Vishay Precision Group (NYSE:VPG) Director, Wes Cummins, buys 25,000 shares, or $1 million worth, from 11/15/22-11/16/22 at $38.88-$39.54. The stock was up 5.1% for the week.

10. Ardelyx (NASDAQ:ARDX) Director, David Mott, bought 567,000 shares, or $1 million worth, on 11/17/22 at $1.7648 following a news of a positive FDA panel outcome for an Ardelyx kidney disease drug. Shares surged 58.8% for the week to end at $2.08.

Sam Boughedda and Reuters contributed to this article.