Loeb's Third Point makes more new bets on energy, cuts stake in Dow

By Svea Herbst-Bayliss

BOSTON (Reuters) - Billionaire investor Daniel Loeb's hedge fund Third Point added new bets in the energy and information technology sectors with investments in Whiting Petroleum Corp., Facebook and Activision Blizzard Inc, according to regulatory filings on Friday.

Third Point, which invests roughly $16 billion and is widely followed because of its years of strong returns, also made new bets on Tesoro Petroleum and Devon Energy Corp. Last month Loeb wrote to investors that savvy bets on the energy market had helped the portfolio gain 4.6 percent in the second quarter, beating the broader Standard & Poor's stock market.

"We came into the year with a short credit portfolio that we reversed sharply in February, getting long over $1B in energy credit," Third Point said in its latest quarterly letter to clients. Loeb also said he sold out of Amgen because he saw better opportunities in other companies.

Among Loeb's biggest holdings, he cut his stake in Dow Chemical Co by 20 percent as the firm sold 5 million shares. At the end of the second quarter he owned 20 million shares.

Third Point made nearly two dozen new investments in U.S. stocks, which were revealed in quarterly 13F filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The filings show what stocks funds owned at the end of the last quarter.

Third Point also exited Signet Jewelers, a widely owned stock that fell 34 percent in the second quarter.

(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Editing by Bernard Orr)

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