Citadel's First Solar stake rose to 6%, but its hedge funds report just 0.0% of the shares
An amendment filed hours after Citadel's original October 15 disclosure lifts Kenneth Griffin's deemed First Solar stake to 6.0%. The filing gives the broker-dealer Citadel Securities LLC 4.9% of the company and gives the hedge fund adviser Citadel Advisors LLC 36,918 shares, a line it rounds to 0.0%.
Vincent Jiang · 3 min read
The tweet said 5%; the filing said 6%, and almost none of it is the fund
On October 15 a post on X read "Breaking: Citadel discloses 5% stake in First Solar," on a stock Barron's says is down 32% this year and just earned an upgrade to Buy. 12 The document behind the post puts almost none of that stake with Citadel's hedge funds: the fund adviser reports 36,918 shares, a line the filing rounds to 0.0% of the class. 34 The Schedule 13G/A, the passive ownership form the SEC requires above 5%, reached EDGAR at 4:56 p.m. EDT, Citadel's second First Solar−3.44% — First Solar, down 3.44 percent as of its last quote filing of that day. 34
The 6% line, and where the shares actually sit
Kenneth Griffin, who controls both Citadel Advisors, the adviser to his hedge funds, and Citadel Securities, the market maker, may be deemed to own 6,459,463 First Solar shares, 6.0% of the 107,469,788 outstanding as of July 24, about $1.16 billion at the October 15 price of $179.05. 45
The entity lines show who holds them. Citadel Securities LLC, the broker-dealer, reports 5,261,645 shares, 4.9%; its parent, Citadel Securities Group LP, reports 6,422,545; Citadel Advisors LLC, the hedge fund adviser, reports 36,918, rounded to 0.0%. 4 The lines overlap rather than add, and Griffin's total contains the others. The shares sit of record with the market maker, with its desk that trades for the firm's own account, and with a vehicle the adviser manages. 4
Directional bet or hedged inventory? The form does not say
Nothing in either filing says whether the broker-dealer's 5,261,645 shares are directional risk or hedged market-making and client-flow inventory; a 13G does not ask. The reading that this is not conviction buying follows from that gap, not from a line in either document.
The stake grew, but the hedge fund line did not
The original 13G, accepted at 7:43 a.m. EDT the same day and keyed to a September 30 event, showed Griffin at 5,409,576 shares, 5.0%, and the adviser at 33,622. 6 The amendment, keyed to October 8, lifted the deemed position by about 1,049,887 shares in two weeks. 46 The broker-dealer took 828,239 of that build. 46 The hedge fund line added 3,296 shares, three-tenths of one percent of the increase. 46
A million shares arrived in two weeks; the hedge fund adviser got 3,296 of them
- September 30 (original 13G)
- October 15 open (13G/A)
Data
| September 30 (original 13G) | October 15 open (13G/A) | |
|---|---|---|
| Kenneth Griffin (deemed total) | 5.41 | 6.46 |
| Citadel Securities Group LP (parent) | 5.38 | 6.42 |
| Citadel Securities LLC (market maker) | 4.43 | 5.26 |
| Citadel Advisors LLC (hedge fund adviser) | 0.03 | 0.04 |
The catalysts are real, and none of them is this filing
Truist+0.13% — Truist, up 0.13 percent as of its last quote Securities analyst Christopher Souther upgraded the stock to Buy on October 12 with a $270 target, citing a stronger pricing backdrop and a 44-cent-a-watt import floor arriving in December, and Morgan Stanley−0.81% — Morgan Stanley, down 0.81 percent as of its last quote lifted its target to $326 from $323 on October 14. 75 Second-quarter net income rose to $423 million from $342 million on a 45.1 gigawatt backlog, with full-year guidance of $4.9 billion to $5.2 billion intact. 5
First Solar, the largest U.S. solar manufacturer, also sued JA Solar, a Chinese panel maker, and Corning subsidiary American Panel Solutions over solar cell patents on October 1. 38 Third-quarter results land on October 29, after the close. 9 The tell inside Citadel's paperwork is the adviser's line, 0.0% in both versions: the stake being retweeted is market-making inventory, not a hedge-fund bet, so far.
Deepdive
AI-generated from this story and its cited sources. Not investment advice.
