Another hedge fund all star struggled last year with Dan Loeb down 11%

Jacob Kepler | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Daniel Loeb, founder and chief executive officer of Third Point LLC

Activist hedge fund manager Dan Loeb is another all star that struggled big time in 2018.

His firm Third Point lost about 6 percent in December alone, bringing its yearly loss to about 11 percent, according to figures obtained by CNBC’s Leslie Picker.

Loeb is not alone in losing big money last year. Billionaire manager David Einhorn had a tougher year, with his main hedge fund losing 34 percent in 2018, the worst performance since Einhorn started the firm in 1996. The stock market, stirred by the trade conflicts and worries on a slowing economy, ended 2018 with the S&P 500 down 6 percent.

Prior to 2018, Loeb had nearly doubled the S&P 500′s return for more than two decades. His main hedge fund returned 18.1 percent in 2017, while many of his peers significantly underperformed the market. The fund gained 6.1 percent in 2017.

Third Point has a roughly 7 percent stake in Campbell Soup, which Loeb had been lobbying to add five directors to Campbell’s board. The company and Third Point reached a deal to add two of Loeb’s nominees to the board and allow the hedge fund to give input on its CEO search.

——CNBC’s
Leslie Picker
contributed reporting.