New York, April 24, 2026, 16:01 EDT
- Eminence Capital, after 27 years in business, is shutting down and will return capital to its investors.
- The firm halted redemptions—blocking investor withdrawals—as it moves to manage an orderly wind-down.
- Stock-picking hedge funds are contending with volatile markets, pricier operations and more intense jockeying for investor dollars—the move comes against that backdrop.
Ricky Sandler is pulling the plug on Eminence Capital after 27 years, sending client money back and closing the book on a well-known New York long/short shop stung by lackluster returns and higher costs. The fund, a long/short equity player, picked shares to buy on the way up and shorted those it saw dropping.
The timing is notable: Eminence isn’t some small fund fading away. The firm’s website puts assets under management at about $5.9 billion, with 18 investment professionals based in New York. It runs three global equity strategies, all using the same research process.
In a letter reviewed by Bloomberg, Sandler pointed to volatile markets and evolving market structures as complicating factors for Eminence’s signature “bottom-up” investment strategy—one that leans heavily on individual company research over sweeping market bets. Sandler acknowledged the fund has “fallen short of our very high standard and your expectations.” Fortune
The firm stopped allowing redemptions as it works through an orderly wind-down. Cash payouts equal to at least 75% of every Eminence fund’s net asset value—assets less liabilities—should arrive by mid to late June, according to Sandler. That’s from Bloomberg via Fortune.
A spokesperson for Eminence wouldn’t comment, the report said. In his note, Sandler called the firm “a defining part of my life” and added that he was proud of what it built — business, culture, investor base. Fortune
According to Investing.com, which referenced Bloomberg News, Sandler highlighted rising expenses tied to retaining top talent and expanding critical infrastructure as key factors behind the decision to call it quits. Across the hedge fund industry, these costs have ballooned, with bigger players pouring money into trading desks, data capabilities, risk management tools, and operations.
Founded by Sandler in 1999, Eminence has stuck to fundamental long and short stock picking, zeroing in on global public equities. According to its website, Sandler holds both the chief executive and chief investment officer titles.
The shutdown lands as some hedge funds face turbulence. Just a day before, Man Group—the London-listed giant—reported assets under management holding steady at $228.7 billion, despite a client yanking $6.1 billion from one strategy in the first quarter. The market didn’t like it; shares slipped after that news.
Wider market swings have put investor caution front and center. BlackRock’s hedge fund unit recently urged clients to diversify strategies and keep an eye on overlapping exposures—crowded trades, they noted, tend to complicate exits. “As differentiation across markets increases, the opportunity set for hedge funds expands with it,” said Michael Pyle, deputy head of BlackRock’s Portfolio Management Group, in the team’s report. Reuters
Eminence hasn’t described the shift as a disorderly collapse. That’s not the risk for investors here. It’s more about what happens in the details: Will unwinding the rest of the portfolio go off without a hitch? Could the market turn on those positions before everything’s sold? And once cash comes back, where will clients redeploy it?
Still, it’s a clear line in the sand. Sandler’s firm—once founded on picking stocks one company at a time—shuts down just as markets speed up, expenses rise, and scale is more critical than it was back in 1999, when it first opened.
