Below is commentary from Whitney Tilson:
Our fund rose 10.6% in March vs. gains of 3.3% for the S&P 500, 2.1% for the Dow and 4.3% for the Nasdaq. Year to date, during the best first quarter for the S&P 500 and Dow since 1998, and the best for the Nasdaq since 1991, our fund also had its best first quarter, jumping 23.6% vs. 12.6% for the S&P 500, 8.8% for the Dow and 18.9% for the Nasdaq.
On the long side, winners included Iridium warrants (45.1%), dELiA*s (32.1%), JP Morgan Chase (17.2%), Howard Hughes (15.0%), Citigroup (9.7%), Wells Fargo (9.1%), AB InBev (8.1%), and Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) (8.0%). Our only losers of note on the long side were J.C. Penney (-10.5%) and Grupo Prisa (B shares) (-8.6%).
Despite the market’s rise, we eked out a gain on the short side thanks to our two largest short positions, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR) (which in last month’s letter we said is likely to be the next Krispy Kreme) and InterOil, (NYSE:IOC) falling 27.9% and 14.5%, respectively. Also contributing on the short side were First Solar (-22.4%) and OpenTable (-16.6%), offset by St. Joe (18.0%), Tesla (11.5%), and Lululemon (11.5%).
monthlyletter-mar12-WhitneyTilson
