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5 Hedge Funds' Top Stocks Soar After 2011 Rout (Update 2)

Written by: Frank Byrt 02/10/12 - 4:31 PM EST
Tickers in this article: NFLX YHOO GS DELL PEET SPB CP AAPL AEO CNI GMCR JCP FSLR PBY XRS
(Adds that Harbinger Capital is a big buyer of shares of Spectrum Brands Holdings.)

BOSTON (TheStreet) -- Hedge funds, coming off their second-worst year in two decades, are on the rebound this year, but they're still trailing the broader market.

Hennessee Group, a hedge fund adviser, said its composite index of hedge fund performance gained 2.5% in January, versus a gain of 4.4% for the S&P 500 Index of the largest U.S. companies.

 

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That comes after a disappointing 2011 for most hedge funds, which control about $2 trillion in assets. As a group, they lost 5% in 2011, while the S&P 500 was flat. Equity hedge funds lost 8.3%, and macro funds, which have a wide array of holdings, dropped 3.8%, and event-driven funds declined 2.8%.

Nevertheless, as a group they still saw inflows of $28 billion, according to another industry analyst, Hedge Fund Research.

Hedge funds of all kinds had about $70 billion in inflows last year, with the bulk of it going to fixed-income investments, a trend that is indicative of investors' defensive positioning last year.