With the oil price crash in March, Citadel Advisors LLC's energy and utilities sector portfolio value in the first quarter declined 34.4% to $4.71 billion, compared to the previous quarter value of $7.18 billion, according to the fund manager's latest Form 13F filing.
The majority of oil and gas exploration and production stake values declined due to their stock prices falling more than 50% during the quarter, which shuffled the fund manager's top investments.
Duke Energy Corp. became the top investment of the fund manager after it increased stake in the electric utility by 73.1%, climbing seven spots from the prior-quarter ranking.
The fund manager's top 10 buys by the number of shares included six exploration and production companies. Noble Energy Inc. saw the largest increase of 9.5 million shares during the period, as its share price declined 75.7% during the quarter.
Three of Citadel Advisors' new investments — Cabot Oil & Gas Corp., EOG Resources Inc. and Pioneer Natural Resources Co. — made it to the top 20 energy and utilities investments. Collectively, Citadel added 44 new energy and utilities stocks to its portfolio at an aggregate market value of $409.5 million.
The fund manager's seventh largest energy stake buy, Tallgrass Energy LP was acquired by an investor group led by The Blackstone Group Inc. in April. The take-private transaction valued at $7.35 billion was signed in December last year.
Seven of the fund manager's top 10 sales in the first quarter involved exploration and production companies. The largest stake sale by the number of shares was Oasis Petroleum Inc. at 8.4 million shares. The company also lost almost 90% of its share price during the quarter.
Citadel also slashed its stake by 91% in Ameren Corp., which was the second-largest holding in the previous quarter.
Citadel Advisors completely sold off its stake in 44 energy and utilities companies with an aggregate market value of $48.6 million as of Dec. 31, 2019. The largest exit was Continental Resources Inc., where the fund manager held a stake valued at $8.4 million at the end of 2019.
