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Foundation and early years
Founded in 1996 by Einhorn, with $900,000 (half borrowed from Einhorn's parents). Greenlight generated greater than a twenty-five percent annualized net return for its investors until 2007, but lackluster results later brought this to under fifteen percent It prospered in its early days by identifying weak financial firms for short selling, making significant gains from Conseco, CompuCredit, Sirrom Capital, and Resource America.
A few months before the dot-com bust, Greenlight lost 4% of its total capital on a short on Chemdex stock as it soared in price. A few months after Greenlight closed its position, Chemdex stock plunged to $2.
2008 financial crisis
In the third quarter of 2008, Greenlight lost 15% of its value due to the 2008 financial crisis, primarily from long positions on industrial companies like Helix Energy Solutions, when the SEC temporarily banned short selling of financial stocks. With the majority of Greenlight's money in bonds and long positions on stocks, this stopped hedge funds minimizing 'long' losses or offsetting them with short gains. Greenlight ended 2008 down 23%, its first annual loss. In 2009, Greenlight recouped its losses from 2008.
Einhorn and Greenlight Capital were fined £7.2m by the FSA for insider trading in January 2012. According to the FSA, Einhorn and Greenlight had used inside information before selling shares of Punch Taverns in 2009, which helped avoid losses of £5.8m.
2015–2020 underperformance
Greenlight Capital was down 20 percent for 2015.
In February 2015, Greenlight Capital was ranked 53rd out of 58 hedge funds, with a D grade, in the Institutional Investor's Alpha Hedge Fund Report Card. This was the second year in a row Greenlight Capital received a D from IIA.
Greenlight Capital greatly underperformed the bull market in 2017. For January 2018, Greenlights funds were down 6% for the month where the S&P 500 was up 5.6%.
In March 2020, the fund posted loss of 21.5% as the global coronavirus pandemic drove the stock markets down.