East Setauket hedge fund's 'bold' moves

The website SeekingAlpha.com on Tuesday provides a concise update on recent decisions at one of the world's biggest hedge funds, the $25 billion Renaissance Technologies fund, based in East Setauket. (It's a "quant" fund, relying largely on statistics and mathematics.)

The analysis is titled "3 Bold Sell-Offs and 4 New Picks by Jim Simons' Renaissance Technologies."

The hedge fund sold all its shares of Hewlett-Packard, Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc.,  and Franklin Resources Inc.

And the fund added the following stocks: Target ($192 million), General Electric Corp. ($150 million),  Exxon Mobil ($141 million investment) and Staples (1.69 million shares; valued at around $25 million).

Photo:  Renaissance Technologies founder James Simons speaking with Carolyn Kennedy during a news conference announcing that Simons'  Math for America organization was funding a program to add 180 new math teachers in New York City schools. (Nov. 19, 2004)