What is Steve Cohen's Net Worth: Early life, Investments and Biography

Steve Cohen is an American businessman, investor, hedge fund manager, and investor. He is also the founder of S.A.C Capital Advisors (now closed) and Point72 Asset Management. Cohen has successfully grown his companies over the years. As of May 2020, his estimated net worth is $14B.

Early Life and Education

Steve A. Cohen was born on the 11^th of June 1956 to a Jewish family in Great Neck, New York. His mother was a piano teacher and his father, a dressmaker at the Manhattan garment district. As a high school student, he developed an interest in poker and often bet his money in tournaments. With betting comes risk, this was a lesson Cohen would later come to treasure in his life. He enrolled at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania where he graduated with a degree in economics in 1978. Before graduating from college, he took out $1,000 from his tuition fee to open a brokerage account.

Business Career

In 1978, Cohen started work as a junior trader at Gruntal & Co. where he worked for 14 years (1978 – 1992). On his first day of work he made a profit of $8,000, and as the years rolled by he began making at least $100,000 daily profit for the company. By 1984, he was already running his own trading group at the company. He managed a total of six traders and a $75 million portfolio.

Cohen had become too much of an expert that he could easily predict the RCA and GE merge ahead of time. This only put the Securities and Exchange Commission on his neck as it was assumed that he was working with inside information. All through the late 1990s, the SEC allowed Cohen only but a little breathing space.

After leaving Gruntal & Co., and making a name for himself through the SEC investigations, he founded his own company, the S.A.C Capital Advisors. He started the company with a total of $20 million—$10 million of his personal money and another $10 million from outside capital. By 2003, SAC Capital Advisors was reported to be one of the biggest hedge funds by the New York Times.

In 1999, Cohen insinuated that SAC traded $20 million shares on a daily basis, and by 2006 the company’s trading was responsible for 2% of the overall stock market trading. As of 2009, the company successfully managed a $14 billion equity. Using multiple strategies like long/short equity portfolios, global quantitative strategies, and fixed income, the company managed to expand its operations and generate more revenue. Its overall annual returns for its investors between 1992 to 2013 was recorded to be 30%.

In 2007, SAC had a stock position in Equinix worth $76 million A month later the company had released a report of positive earnings, shortly after, its shares value increased by 32%. With his early interest in betting, Cohen has never been afraid to put up a bet in his business deals. In 2012, he put up a bet worth $26.7 billion on Ardea Biosciences, and in 2008, he bet against Elan and Wyeth which earned him an extra $275 million. SAC accumulated a $700 million long-term position in Elan and Wyeth, pharmaceutical companies. The companies were in a joint agreement to develop an Alzheimer's drug. All didn’t go well after the companies announced the poor results by the second stage of the clinical trials which in turn greatly affected their stocks. As both companies lamented over their losses, SAC managed not to be a part of it.

Having a history with SEC accusations, Cohen was confronted with allegations of an insider trading scandal which involved Matthew Martoma, an ex CAS manager. Allegations were made against a number of SAC employees who were fully functional between 2010-2013. The Martoma insider trading scandal was reported as the most profitable in history, and in 2014, Martoma was convicted. The SEC managed to still raise allegations against Cohen for not properly supervising Martoma and Michael Steinberg, a senior employee at SAC.

In 2013, Cohen, through SAC pleaded guilty to the allegations and paid a fine of $1.8 billion. It had been reported by Dr. Sidney Gilman, that Cohen was the actual target of the government—Martoma just happened to be in the way. By 2016, Cohen founded Point72 Ventures, a venture capital fund that helps in making early-stage investments.

Investments

In 2019, Cohen purchased a majority share of the New York Mets where he was formerly a minority owner. As reported by Fox Sports, by becoming majority shareholder, Cohen would control 80% of the Mets. It was reported that “the Sterling Partners and Steve Cohen are negotiating an agreement in which Steve Cohen would increase his investment in the New York Mets.” An investment that would only begin to bring returns after five years. The agreement implied that Fred Wilpon will retain his position as the CEO of the Mets, and his son, Jeff will remain the COO for the next five years. However, Cohen’s stake at the Mets will be managed by Cohen Private Ventures.

Charity work

●     Steven and Alexandra Cohen Foundation: The foundation focuses on making donations to health, education, culture, arts, and the New York Community as a whole. In 2014, research was being carried out on post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury, a donation was made from the Cohen foundation through the New York University, Langone Center to support the research. In 2014, the foundation also supported the Bruce Museum of Arts and Science with a grant of $100,000. Yet again, earlier this year (2019), the Cohen’s Foundation supported the New York Museum of Modern Art with $50 million.

●     Cohen Veterans Bioscience; funded by Cohen to research the effects of posttraumatic stress disorder on war veterans.

●     Cohen Veteran Network: Through the CVN, Cohen intends to establish mental health centers for war veterans and their families across the U.S. He has committed $275 million to the CVN, and hopes to establish at most 25 centers by 2020.

Net Worth 

As of 2015, Forbes reported that Steve Cohen was worth  $12 billion, this is 2019, his new Net Worth has been updated and he actually got richer. Mr Cohen is now worth $ 13.6 billion as of today, but it safe to assume that he is worth more.