The observant Kate Taylor noticed that Stevie Cohen’s hedge fund, SAC, had sold it’s position in Sotheby’s by the end of June. Cohen clearly made a good profit but the sale was premature with the stock traading above $19 in recent weeks which would have been up another 30% or more from June:

[R]ecent S.E.C. filings show that, as of the end of June, SAC Capital had sold all of its Sotheby’s stock. A spokesman for SAC Capital, Jonathan Gasthalter, declined to comment on why SAC sold the stock. Whatever the reason, it was likely at a profit. The fund acquired its Sotheby’s stake between September and April, a period in which the auction house’s stock was battered by the financial crisis and a shrinking art market. The share price was below $10 for much of that period, down from a high of $61.40 at the end of the boom. This spring, the stock rebounded somewhat –­ it was $14.48 a share on June 30­, so SAC’s sale of its roughly four million shares was likely to have netted several million dollars.

Art Collector’s Hedge Fund No Longer Holds Sotheby’s Stake (Arts Beat/NY Times)