David Einhorn's Q4 Letter: Greenlight Buys More Apple & Vodafone

David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital is out with their Q4 letter to investors via ValueWalk.  Greenlight returned 7.9% in 2012 and 19.4% annualized.

The key takeaways from Greenlight's fourth quarter activity include:

- Bought more Apple (AAPL):  They originally trimmed their position size in the third quarter, but as shares fell in Q4, they bought back some of their stake.  Einhorn has held AAPL for quite some time as he originally purchased around $248 and this seems to be the only other time he's added to the position.


- Bought more Vodafone (VOD):  This has also been a longstanding position for Einhorn under the thesis that VOD's ownership stake in Verizon Wireless is being undervalued.  We've also posted Eminence Capital's long Vodafone short Verizon pair trade thesis as well.


- Covered Pitney Bowes (PBI) Short:  Greenlight labeled this company a 'melting ice cube' due to facing secular challenges of declining US mail volumes.  Many hedgies have been short this name and we've also posted up how hedge funds have been shorting competitor Neopost as well.


- Sold Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII), Humana (HUM), Wellpoint (WLP), bought other managed care organizations (undisclosed).


Greenlight's top five positions at the end of the year were (in alphabetical order): Apple (AAPL), Cigna (CI), General Motors (GM), gold, and Vodafone (VOD).


Embedded below is Greenlight Capital's Q4 letter to investors:




For more on this investor. be sure to also check out Einhorn's short thesis on iron ore.

Alan Fournier's Pennant Capital Buys More Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII)

Alan Fournier's hedge fund firm Pennant Capital filed an amended 13G with the SEC regarding its position in Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII). Per the new filing, Pennant now owns 8.91% of HII with 4,347,499 shares.

This marks a boost of almost 59% in their position size due to trading activity on January 31st, 2012.

Pennant started a new stake in Huntington Ingalls in late November of last year, originally purchasing 2,734,343 shares and they've clearly continued to build their position.

About Pennant Capital

Alan Fournier founded Pennant after working at David Tepper's Appaloosa Management where he was responsible for the global equity portfolio. He graduated from Wentworth Institute of Technology's Mechanical Engineering program.

About Huntington Ingalls Industries

Per Google Finance, HII "designs, builds and maintains nuclear and non-nuclear ships for the United States Navy and Coast Guard, and provides aftermarket services for military ships around the globe. HII’s business divisions are Ingalls Shipbuilding and Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS). Ingalls Shipbuilding has the development and production of warships for the surface Navy fleet, United States Coast Guard, United States Marine Corps, and foreign and commercial customers."

David Einhorn Buys Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII)

David Einhorn's hedge fund Greenlight Capital started a brand new stake in Huntington Ingalls industries (HII) per a 13G just filed with the SEC. Due to portfolio activity on July 15th, Greenlight has disclosed a 5.1% ownership stake in HII with 2,510,000 shares.

Huntington Ingalls was spun-off from Northrop Grumman (NOC) and started trading in April 2011. NOC operates in the security industry focusing on aerospace, information and electronic systems, etc. Since being spun-off, shares of HII are down almost 15%.

To read up on the rest of recent portfolio activity from this hedge fund, head to Greenlight Capital's Q2 letter as well as Einhorn's presentation from the Ira Sohn Conference.

Per Google Finance, Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc (HII) "designs, builds and maintains nuclear and non-nuclear ships for the United States Navy and Coast Guard, and provides aftermarket services for military ships around the globe. HII’s business divisions are Ingalls Shipbuilding and Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS)."

And to learn to invest like Einhorn, check out his recommended reading list.