Investing

Billionaire Investor Takes a Bite Out of Live Nation Entertainment

Will Ashworth

Published: February 7, 2025 4:57 pm

Billionaire Zach Schreiber’s hedge fund, PointState Capital, is said to have generated a 47.9% return for investors in 2024. 

Who is Schreiber, and how did he become such a successful investor?

The hedge manager graduated from Brown University in 1995. In 1996, he worked for the Bass Brothers until 2002, when he joined billionaire hedge fund manager Stanley Druckenmiller at Duquesne Capital Management. 

Druckenmiller wound up his hedge fund in August 2010. Five months later, Schreiber and some of his colleagues at Duquesne established PointState Capital. Schreiber remains the hedge fund’s CEO and CIO (Chief Investment Officer) more than a decade later. 

As of March 2024, it had $7.39 billion in assets under management (AUM), with $5.51 billion listed on its Q3 2024 13F holdings report invested in 53 securities, including 40 stocks, six long call options, two long put options, one convertible note, and four ETFs.

Here are the more interesting additions and subtractions from PointState Capital’s Q3 2024 13F.      

Key Points About This Article:

• PointState Capital co-founder Zach Schreiber learned under Stanley Druckenmiller at Duquesne Capital Management. 
• The hedge fund’s average hold is a little over three quarters. 
• Schreiber’s firm likes to buy a little of everything: stocks, ETFs, options, and convertible notes. 
• Sit back and let dividends do the heavy lifting for a simple, steady path to serious wealth creation over time. Grab a free copy of “2 Legendary High-Yield Dividend Stocks” now.

One Out. One In.

In the third quarter, Schreiber’s firm sold all 671,260 shares of Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) and purchased 938,554 shares of Live Nation Entertainment (NYSE:LYV). 

PointState’s Workday holdings accounted for 3.26% of its portfolio at the end of June, up from 1.06% at the end of March, making it the eighth-largest holding. It first owned WDAY stock in Q1 2024. 

One of the 17 new purchases in Q3 was Live Nation, the world’s largest producer of live entertainment. It hosts 44,000 concerts and over 100 festivals annually in more than 45 countries, making it a global powerhouse in the music industry. 

Of the 13 new stocks purchased in the third quarter, the hedge fund’s Live Nation buy was the most expensive, valued at nearly $103 million at the end of September. It’s around $140 million today, making it its 18th-largest holding.

Analysts like it. Of the 24 analysts who cover it, 19 (x%) rate it a Buy with a $150 target price, which is right where it’s trading. With the summer months and the busy concert season just around the corner, PointState must see LYV’s momentum continuing. 

It’s up over 70% in the past year.  

A Big Call Buy in Building Materials

Schreiber’s hedge fund made two moves with CRH (NYSE:CRH) in the third quarter.

First, PointState sold 61,743 shares of the Irish-based building materials company. Despite the share sale, the company’s weight in the hedge fund’s portfolio increased four basis points to 4.34% during the third quarter. CRH is the hedge fund’s largest holding. It first acquired shares of the company in Q2 2024. 

The estimated average price paid is $80.90 a share, so Schreiber’s bet on CRH has paid off in less than a year. 

The second move on the second move with CRH was the purchase of 20,000 call options in the third quarter, representing another two million shares of its stock. The two positions account for nearly 8% of PointState’s portfolio. 

Schreiber’s been reading about the global housing shortage with this bet. 

Concerns About Energy

There were 17 new purchases in the third quarter, including 17,000 put options for the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSEARCA:XLE), which tracks the performance of the 22 energy companies in the S&P 500. XLE accounts for 2.71% of the hedge fund’s assets. 

It’s worth noting that the hedge fund sold out of two energy stocks in the third quarter, along with an XLE call. The four remaining energy stocks account for just 1.33% of the portfolio, which suggests Schreiber doesn’t see good times ahead for the energy industry. 

The Only Convertible Note Was a Big Addition

The hedge fund finished the third quarter with only one convertible note for Cree Inc., which changed its name to Wolfspeed (NYSE:WOLF) in 2021.

The note’s face value is $20 million, and its market value was $14.3 million as of Sept. 30. It was one of 17 new purchases during the quarter. The semiconductor company’s stock has lost 78% of its value over the past year. 

It appears that PointState feels the value bet on Wolfspeed’s debt is good. 

The SPY Put for Downside Protection

The hedge fund’s largest position is SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA:SPY) put options, which account for 21.51% of its portfolio. 

PointState increased its long puts by 143.13% in the third quarter, adding 12,166, bringing the total to 20,666 put options, equivalent to 2.066 million SPY shares. The hedge fund first acquired SPY puts in Q1 2016. 

The doubling of SPY puts indicates that Schreiber and the company view the markets as somewhat overheated. Following the hedge fund’s SPY put options over the next few quarters makes sense to see where they go tactically.