(Bloomberg) -- David Einhorn started the year with a loss in his hedge funds, curtailing last year's success.
Greenlight Capital fell 7.6% across the funds in January, according to an investor update on Friday viewed by Bloomberg. The S&P 500 Index was little changed with dividends reinvested.
Einhorn, whose value style of investing has mostly been out of sync with markets in recent years, is still recovering from a record loss of 34% in 2018 and his fund remains below its high-water mark despite a 14% gain last year. Early in 2019, he vowed to rework his portfolio by making fewer, more-concentrated investments.
Some of New York-based Greenlight's short wagers, including Tesla Inc. and Netflix Inc., may have dragged on returns as those stocks climbed in January. Einhorn's bet against Tesla is mostly expressed through put options -- so the firm's exposure to the position has shrunk as the stock posted a big rally this year, the hedge fund manager said in a Jan. 21 client letter.
Einhorn added to his short position in Netflix in the fourth quarter, saying the company's bullish growth narrative is “finally coming to an end” and that there's “a lot of downside” to the stock. The streaming company's shares rose about 6.7% in January.
Meanwhile, several of Einhorn's biggest bullish bets, like Chemours Co., AerCap Holdings NV and General Motors Co., lost money in the month.
A Greenlight spokesman declined to comment.
To contact the reporter on this story: Katia Porzecanski in New York at kporzecansk1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sam Mamudi at smamudi@bloomberg.net, Josh Friedman, Alan Mirabella
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