Netflix founder Hastings steps down: Hedge funds and C-suites weekly

By Davit Kirakosyan

Investing.com -- In big C-suite news, Netflix's Reed Hastings gave up his co-CEO title last week. And here is your full weekly roundup of the biggest news out of hedge funds and company top brass, all first covered on InvestingPro.

Shakeup at Netflix

Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) announced that Reed Hastings stepped down as a co-CEO to take on the role of executive chairman. Greg Peters has stepped up from COO to become Ted Sarandos' co-CEO and a member of the Netflix board.

Netflix shares surged more than 8% on Friday as the company's global streaming paid net additions grew 7.66 million in Q4, well ahead of its 4.5M estimate, due to both strong acquisition and retention, driven primarily by the success of its Q4 content slate.

This caused several Wall Street firms, including Evercore ISI and JPMorgan, to raise their price targets on the stock. JPMorgan raised its target from $330 to $390 maintaining its Overweight rating and Evercore ISI raised its target from $340 to $400 maintaining its Outperform rating. Both firms mentioned the potential for accelerating revenue. Shares climbed 3.8% for the week.

A trio of big management changes

Texas Instruments Incorporated (NASDAQ:TXN) announced on Thursday that its board of directors appointed current COO Haviv Ilan the company's next CEO, effective April 1. Ilan, who spent 24 years at the company, succeeds current CEO Rich Templeton, who will transition out of these roles over the next two months but will stay on as chairman. Shares slipped 2.3% for the week.

Peloton Interactive (NASDAQ:PTON) announced on Tuesday the appointment of Leslie Berland, Twitter's former top marketer, as Peloton's CMO, effective last Wednesday. This comes amid a parade of new executive appointments at Peloton and attempts to cut costs amid the post-COVID return to gyms, which have undermined consumers' demand for its home-exercise equipment and put the company in the red. Shares rose 1.6% for the week.

Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) announced on Wednesday that its CEO Steve Kean will step down from his leadership position effective August 1. Kean, who served as CEO since 2015, will be succeeded by President Kim Dang.

The company's shares rose more than 2% on Wednesday after the company reported a Q4 revenue miss. The company also announced a $1 billion increase in its share repurchase program.

Ryan Cohen's big Alibaba bet

Turning to hedge funds, activist investor Ryan Cohen has accumulated a stake in Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) in the second half of 2022, according to the report by Wall Street Journal. Cohen, whose stake is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, believes the company could reach double-digit sales growth and nearly 20% free cash flow growth over the coming five years.

While Alibaba raised the size of its share repurchase program to $40B in November, Cohen suggested the company raise it to $60B, according to people familiar with the matter. Shares were up 4.5% for the week.

Rounding up the week's big hedge fund news

Tenet Healthcare (NYSE:THC) said David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital took a medium-sized long position in the company during Q4.

And hedge fund ValueAct Capital called on Seven & i (OTC:SVNDY) shareholders on Thursday to back a spin-off of the company's 7-Eleven convenience store chain, arguing that the move would deliver considerable benefits to shareholders. ValueAct Capital, which owns a 4.4% stake in the Japanese company, and has been pushing for changes for over a year, argued that a spin-off could be completed via a listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange within a year.

Seven & i is currently conducting a strategic review and has pledged to announce its decisions by early March. ADR shares were down 1.4% for the week.

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