WEALTH UNIVERSITY

[Tina]

If anyone's looking for a long term possible investment hold:

David Tepper and Bruce Berkowitz weren't the only fund managers to buy shares of Citigroup last quarter. It turns out more than 120 hedge funds bought stock in the bank, adding a net 1.2 billion shares. Fund purchases outnumbered sales by a ratio of more than 10 to 1. And you'll recognize the names of the three biggest buyers...

John Paulson bought over 200 million shares, bringing his Citi holdings to 506.7 million shares. Eric Mindich's Eton Park Capital Management bought 138 million shares, making it the fund's largest holding. And George Soros reported a 94.7 million-share stake worth $313.4 million. Hedge funds are buying Citi because government-regulated banks make a killing during periods of inflation – especially when the government is manipulating interest rates in their favor.

The government has already proven it will pump as much money as needed into the bank. And it doesn't want the public embarrassment of losing money on its investment.

Prominent hedge funds jumping into financials - Reuters.com : Reuters.com reports prominent hedge fund managers voted with their wallets in the fourth quarter to declare the long financial crisis over, and made big bets on banks and other lenders to back that view. John Paulson, Edward Lampert and Carl Icahn were among those who raised their bets on financial stocks during the last three months of 2009, regulatory filings released on Tuesday and last week show... CIT Group (CIT) received a vote of confidence from several hedge fund managers for its emergence from bankruptcy in December. Lampert's RBS Partners LP reported a holding of 4.5 million shares in CIT as of Dec. 31, and Paulson held 4.4 million shares at the end of the quarter... In the fourth quarter alone Paulson bought more than 200 million shares in Citi (C), raising his stake to $1.67 billion from $954 million, or about 8% of the fund's total value. Large stakes in Citi and Bank of America account for about 11% of almost $20 billion Paulson reported. In the quarter, Paulson's fund made fresh bets or raised existing ones on a number of financial cos, from JPMorgan Chase (JPM) to Marshall & Isley (MI). Edward Lampert, long considered a savvy investor, has been a long-time holder of Citigroup. In the fourth quarter he significantly raised his stake in the bank to 31.3 million shares from the 18.8 million owned at the end of the third quarter. Lampert's Greenwich, fund co also placed new bets on Bank of America (BAC) by buying 453,512 shares. He bought 1.5 million shares of Wells Fargo (WFC) during the fourth quarter as well.

17-Feb-10 05:44 ET In Play
Soros doubled gold ETF investment, buys Citi - Reuters : Reuters reports George Soros' hedge fund more than doubled its bet on the price of gold during the fourth quarter, a portion of the firm's total U.S.-listed equity holdings of $8.8 bln at the end of 2009. The firm also disclosed in a filing on Tuesday with the SEC that it bought almost 95 mln shares of Citigroup (C) during the quarter, worth $313 mln by the end of the year. Soros reported no holdings of the troubled bank's shares at the end of the third quarter. Soros Fund Management owned 6.2 mln shares of SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) at the end of the year worth $663 mln. That was up from 2.5 mln shares at the end of the third quarter. The filing for the end of the fourth quarter revealed no listing for Canadian chemicals manufacturer Potash Corp of Saskatchewan (POT), Soros' largest holding at the end of the third quarter. That could indicate that the almost 3 mln share investment was sold during the fourth quarter. But large investors occasionally leave off major holdings when they are trading the position and disclose their investment in a confidential filing with the SEC or in a subsequent amendment to their public report. The firm does not comment on its holdings, a spokesman said. Soros' most recent SEC filing also revealed large bets on Monsanto (MON) and Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PBR). The firm held 3.9 million shares of Monsanto at the end of the fourth quarter, up from 1.1 million three months earlier. Soros also reported a stake of 7.7 million shares of Petrobras's U.S. ADRs. Soros also reported raising his holdings in Hess (HES) and AT&T (T) among others. According to the regulatory filing, Soros Fund Management raised its holding in Ford (F) to 10.9 million shares from 7.3 million shares at the end of the third quarter, when Soros started to accumulate his position.