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Einhorn bet lifts Yelp, but fails to boost nat gas

Greenlight reports new stake in Yelp
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Greenlight reports new stake in Yelp

Shares of Yelp popped nearly 3 percent Tuesday after a fund managed by famed investor David Einhorn announced a stake in the company. But natural gas companies failed to get the same Einhorn bounce, trading mixed Tuesday morning.

Einhorn wrote a first-quarter letter to investors explaining a new long "macro" position in natural gas. In the letter seen by CNBC, Einhorn also revealed he has exited Greek banks at "an almost complete loss" but has made a bullish bet on Yelp, the business review site.

Shares of Yelp traded as high as $22.67 a share Tuesday, closing at $22.51. But natural gas company Chesapeake traded down almost 12 percent, and Southwestern Energy dropped nearly 7 percent, while Williams Companies' shares were up 3 percent.

Betting on natural gas

The price of natural gas has fallen around 33 percent in the last twelve months of trade and is currently priced at about $2.06 per million British thermal units (MBtu).

Einhorn said Monday he has added 2017 and 2018 futures contracts at an average price of $2.71 MBtu and $2.84 MBtu, respectively.

Both prices had risen by the end of the first quarter and Einhorn expects them to climb further.

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"As existing wells deplete, supplies should fall," wrote the investor.

"Normal weather combined with lower production could lead to a shortage within a year."

For the first quarter of 2016, Greenlight said its capital funds returned 3 percent to investors net of fees and expenses — the first positive quarterly result for Greenlight since 2014.

Einhorn’s positive Yelp review

The Greenlight Capital boss also believes in the prospects for Yelp.

Yelp shares tumbled in March after a UBS downgrade cited increased competition and concerns over the firm's muted earnings outlook.

However, Einhorn believes the site, which claims around 200 million unique monthly visitors, has a convincing turnaround plan in place.

"Yelp is adding more transaction-based revenue, gradually relocating its sales-force to lower cost cities and providing more reporting tools to its customers to better illustrate the robust ROI of dollars spent with Yelp," he said.

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In the letter, the hedge fund manager claimed that if Yelp can execute its current plan, it could double revenues by 2019.

In the fourth quarter of 2015, Yelp posted revenues of $153.7 million.

The hedge fund letter also revealed it has now completely exited Greek banks after it suffered fallout from last summer's debt negotiations.

"Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras took the country to the brink of an exit from the euro last summer. That meant new stress tests, which resulted in new dilution and nearly nothing for existing equity holders," Einhorn said.

— CNBC's Anita Balakrishnan contributed to this report.