David Einhorn Long Aercap, Short GATX: Sohn New York Conference

We're posting up notes from the Sohn New York Investment Conference.  Next up is David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital who presented long Aercap (AER), short GATX (GATX).


David Einhorn's Sohn New York Presentation

•    Companies that lease airplanes have better businesses than companies that lease railcars (long Aercap, short GATX)

o    Airline leases are usually at least 10 years with a 25 year life
o    Railcar leases are 5 years when it’s new or less when it is used. Useful life is around 45 years
o    Airlines in cyclical growth
o    Railroads are more cyclical
o    Airplane utilization much higher than railcar
o    Can move airplanes around easier
o    Credit has cost airline leasing companies 0.1%. Cost railcar leasing companies nothing
o    Railroads becoming more efficient and using less railcars
o    Aercap- airline leasing in growing industry. Average age 6 years. Sells 15 year old planes. Longer leases
o    GATX-Railcar leasing. 14% market share. Cyclical and secular headwinds. Provides maintenance to customers. Average 20 year age. More dependent on releasing rates. Recent leases are shorter term
o    Aercap trades at a 50% discount to GATX even though it’s a better business both on P/E and P/B
o    Aercap is buying back stock. Reduced shares outstanding by 36%. Will continue to buyback stock


Be sure to check out the rest of the Sohn New York conference presentations.

Greenlight Capital Q3 Letter: Sold Apple, Still Short Tesla

David Einhorn's hedge fund Greenlight Capital has had a rough 2018.  They're now down 25.7% for the year.  During the quarter, they exited the last of their longstanding Apple (AAPL) position at $228 per share. 

They feel their AAPL thesis that was once differentiated has now become consensus and the valuation of 17x forward earnings is "much less enticing and we are somewhat worried about Chinese retaliation against America's trade policies."

Greenlight also continues to be bearish on Tesla and noted many similarities to Lehman Brothers before its collapse.  They also highlighted CEO Elon Musk's erratic behavior.  There's numerous paragraphs about TSLA in the letter below.


Greenlight New Longs: Altice USA and BT Group

In other notable portfolio activity, they initiated two new longs: Altice USA (ATUS) and BT Group. 

ATUS they acquired at $18.38 and view it as a discounted play on cable peers in the US.  They feel the company has better cashflow conversion and more investment opportunities than rivals. 

BT Group they purchased at £2.19 and feel that shares were cheap at 4.7x EV/EBITDA and an 8% dividend yield. 

They also covered their 11 year short in Martin Marietta Materials (MLM) and covered another short: TransDigm Group (TDG). 

Also, they sold out of their Micron (MU) position and exited their Mylan (MYL) stake as well.


Greenlight Capital's Q3 Letter

Embedded below is Greenlight Capital's Q3 Letter:



For more recent hedge fund commentary, check out Bill Ackman's new long Starbucks SBUX presentaiton.

Greenlight Capital Q4 Letter: New Stakes in Brighthouse Financial, Twitter, Time Warner, Ensco

David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital has released its fourth quarter 2017 letter.  They finished the year up 1.6%.

Greenlight Takes New Stakes in Brighthouse Financial, Twitter, Ensco, Time Warner

The hedge fund firm initiated numerous new positions recently.

The hedge fund's new stake in Brighthouse Financial (BHF) is all about valuation.  The company was spun out of MetLife and they feel analysts have been too negative on BHF's prospects.  They feel shares are trading at a 40-50% discount to peers and note management is incentivized if shares appreciate.

Einhorn's firm also jumped back into Time Warner shares (TWX), a previous holding.  They utilized volatility in the name to re-establish a stake as the US government has opposed their sale to AT&T (T).  Greenlight feels the government has a weak anti-trust case but even if they somehow win, shares are still cheap and the company has strategic options.

Greenlight also entered Twitter (TWTR) shares with their thesis being that the user experience has improved yielding growth in new users and time spent on the platform.  They feel the company now has a better pitch to advertisers, yielding revenue growth.  The company has around a 25% margin gap to other social media peers and Greenlight feels they can close the gap.  (Note: David Einhorn is on Twitter, though he doesn't post about the market, usually just poker.)

Embedded below is Greenlight Capital's Q4 2017 letter:



For more from this manager, be sure to also check out David Einhorn's recent investment talk at  Oxford Union.

David Einhorn's Investing Talk at Oxford Union

Greenlight Capital's David Einhorn recently was interviewed and completed a question and answer session at Oxford Union.  He's been quite busy in recent months as he also spoke at the Capitalize For Kids conference.

Einhorn noted he likes debate and did it in high school, as you had to be able to argue both sides of the argument.  That trait is useful in investing as you look at the contra viewpoint to your position.

"We're wrong all the time.  I shouldn't say all the time.  We're wrong often.  We have to constantly question whether we're wrong."

On launching Greenlight: There's very low barriers to entry in the hedge fund industry and he thought if they could do a good job with a small amount of money they could live a good life.  He never dreamed that it would grow as much as it did.

He attributes his success to critical thinking skill.  If you can have a distinct viewpoint from everybody else and be right, you can be successful. 

About Greenlight's culture:  He thinks Greenlight has a lot of humility and respect with smart and nice people working together.  They want to respect each other's time.  Critical thinkers that reason and think before they speak and can adjust to new facts and feedback.

Einhorn is an avid poker player and he says it's a very similar skillset as you have certain facts you know (info about the company) and then things you can surmise (CEO's motivation, etc), and then unknown things that could come in the future.  "So you combine what you know, with what you think you can surmise, combined with understanding the range of outcomes relating to the uncertain things and saying is this a good place to commit a fraction of my capital?"

In poker, you know how many chips everyone has, what your cards are, what the card on the table are.  But you have to surmise what the other players might have or might do.  And then the uncertainty is the range of future cards that aren't yet displayed.

In investing, Einhorn likes to focus locally or in developed markets.  He says the further you get away (geographically or developmentally) there's a lot of local customs, local knowledge you have to acquire and it's hard to compete when you're sitting in New York, even if you go visit every once in a while.


Q&A Session:

On the environment for launching funds: If you're launching today, you're basically hiring 14-40 people from analysts to traders to CFO to backoffice, etc.  So you basically need to have enough assets under management right out of the gate to justify all that hiring and to fund the business.  His launch wasn't really like that: it was him and another guy in a tiny office doing all the various duties.  With a small AUM, there wasn't a lot of expense so you could do that.  He thinks you could still do that today if you had a differentiated strategy and articulated it well and had a client base.  He relied on word of mouth once he had a good start performance-wise.   He notes that the whole 'capital introduction' industry has spawned since then and so that's been a big difference.

On shorting companies/bubble basket:  He doesn't short companies on overvaluation.  He always looks for some sort of deterioration.  There's been a lot of companies that aren't really profitable (his bubble basket of 40-50 companies) and while 4 or 5 really worked against him, the vast majority of the basket worked in their favor.  That is, until this year.  They've all gone up and rallied against him but until they start showing profit, he won't take a different view.

On being contrarian:  He has to re-assess constantly, especially if the position moves against him.  So you have to constantly evaluate and understand the other side.  If something's changed, you've got to reduce/increase/exit based on that information.  Generally his choice is to reduce or eliminate a position.  But if he thinks he's right, patience is the way to go.

On if he'll change his strategy as value hasn't worked as well recently:  "Our goal is to achieve attractive risk-adjusted returns over time while taking demonstrably less risk than the market as a whole.  Which means fundamentally we're not comparing ourselves to the S&P 500 or an index, so we don't evaluate ourselves that way."

"The way you deal with unknown unknowns is through portfolio construction.  We like to run a concentrated portfolio, but even our best idea we're not going to put all our money in.  You have to have some level of diversification ... a certain amount of market risk."

"We tend to think of risk as how much can we lose in the worst case?"

On machine learning/competing with robots:  "We view these investments as puzzles.  There are the few things you know, but they're not the most important things because everybody knows them.  The most important things are what is that you can infer and how good are you assessing the possible range of outcomes, either the known unknowns or unknown unknowns and how do you construct that into a portfolio.  I'm sure the machines have views on these and the shorter-term the decision, the more likely the machine is going to figure it out better and faster than the human.  But our goal here is just to find things that are widely misunderstood by a large margin such that we're not competing with that kind of technology, because I don't think we would beat them."

On short-termism vs long-term focus:  "I think that one of the inefficiencies in the market is investors are generically too short-term oriented and time arbitrage is one of the best inefficiencies in the market."

Embedded below is the video of David Einhorn's talk at Oxford Union:



You can view Greenlight Capital's portfolio in the latest issue of our newsletter.

Greenlight Capital Q3 Letter: New Stakes in HPE, Tempur Sealy, Micron

David Einhorn's hedge fund firm Greenlight Capital returned 6.2% in the third quarter and is now up 3.3% year-to-date.  Their third quarter letter outlines they had average exposure of 118% long and 73% short.

At the end of Q3, Greenlight's top five positions (alphabetical order) were AerCap, Bayer, CONSOL Energy, General Motors, and gold.

New Positions in Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Tempur Sealy, Micron

The letter highlights that they established a few new positions.  First, they entered Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) shares.  They see earnings of $1.40 to $1.70 over the next few years as the company recently sold its outsourced services and software businesses.  They bought at $13.29 per share.

Second, they re-entered a previous holding: Micron Technology (MU).  They feel the DRAM market has improved as have the company's earnings, though think investors are underappreciating the improvements.  They bought around $29.21.

Thirdly, Einhorn's firm entered Tempur Sealy (TPX).  We posted Einhorn's presentation on Tempur Sealy from the GIBI Dallas Conference recently as well.

Other interesting notes: they covered their short of Best Buy (BBY), closed their longs in PVH and Axiare Patrimonio.

Embedded below is Greenlight Capital's Q3 letter:



Credit to ValueWalk who posted it first.

For more hedge fund letters, we also posted up Third Point's Q3 letter here.

Greenlight Capital Q2 Letter: New Toshiba Position

David Einhorn's hedge fund firm Greenlight Capital is out with its second quarter letter.  During the quarter, they lost 4% and thus far for the year are down 2.8% net.  Their average exposure was 111% long and 79% short.

Their five largest longs in alphabetical order are: AerCap (AER), Bayer (Germany: BAYN), CONSOL Energy (CNX), General Motors (GM), and Mylan (MYL).

They also point out short positions in their 'bubble basket' include Amazon (AMZN), athenahealth (ATHN), Netflix (NFLX), and Tesla (TSLA) that have moved against them.

The letter walks through some of their thoughts on each.  While Greenlight is long one auto manufacturer (GM) and short another one via Tesla, they don't do pair trades.

Also, the letter highlights that Greenlight started a new long in Toshiba (Japan: 6502) and outlines their thesis there.

Lastly, they also note they've sold their longs in Altice and Time Warner (TWX), as well as covered their decade-long short position in the credit rating agencies and their short of Mallinckrodt (MNK).

Embedded below is Greenlight Capital's Q2 letter:

 

For more from this manager, be sure to check out Einhorn's presentation on shorting Core Labs.

David Einhorn's Sohn Presentation: Short Core Labs

We've posted up notes from the Sohn Conference New York and today are also posting the slideshow presentation from David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital.  He pitched a short of Core Labs (CLB) with the thesis that it's a cyclical company disguised as a secular grower.

He thinks fair value is $62, or around 40% lower as the company has exposure to international oil field capex budgets that won't recover.

Embedded below is David Einhorn's Sohn conference presentation on Core Labs:



You can download a .pdf copy here.

For more from this conference, we've also posted up Bill Ackman's presentation on HHC.

Greenlight Capital's General Motors Presentation: Unlocking Value at GM

David Einhorn's hedge fund Greenlight Capital has put out a slide deck on its large position in General Motors (GM).  The presentation is entitled: "Unlocking Value at GM: Two Classes of Common Shares."

Basically, Greenlight has asked the company to change its capital structure in order to unlock 'substantial shareholder value.'  The hedge fund has proposed that GM distribute 'dividend shares' on a tax-free basis.

Greenlight concludes that, "Creating two classes of common stock will unlock GM's value by forcing the market to appropriately value the dividend and give credit for GM's earnings potential.

Regarding how the company responded to these ideas, CNBC's David Faber tweeted that "GM considered Greenlight proposal for and rejected after months of meetings with management and board - sources." 

He also tweeted:  "GM rejected Greenlight proposal citing potential loss of Inv grade rating, governance challenge and uncertain demand for new shares - sources."

Embedded below is Greenlight's presentation: Unlocking Value at GM:



You can download a .pdf copy here.

For more on this fund, be sure to also check out Greenlight Capital's Q4 letter where they drastically increased their GM position.

Greenlight Capital's Q4 Letter: Dramatically Increased General Motors Position

David Einhorn's hedge fund Greenlight Capital finished 2016 up 8.4% and has returned 16.1% annualized since inception in 1996.

Their fourth quarter letter examines how their portfolio is positioned now that Donald Trump is president and will be trying to change policies. 

Greenlight is long various US value stocks that could benefit from corporate tax cuts (AMERCO, CC, Dillard's, DSW), they're long companies that can benefit from repatriation of foreign cash (Apple (AAPL)), and they're long companies that can benefit from demand for consumer durables (General Motors (GM), a position in which they've "dramatically increased their position."

They're also short 'bubble basket' stocks (Netflix), oil frackers, and Caterpillar (CAT).

Turning back to their thesis on GM, Greenlight writes that, "While the bears have been screaming 'peak auto' for the last couple of years, we think a strengthening job market will sustain the current upcycle and lead to better than expected credit performance at GM's finance subsidiary.  While the bears also cite long-term concerns over self-driving cars, we see a huge intermediate-term opportunity in assisted-driving cars."

During the quarter, David Einhorn's firm also exited its positions in AECOM (ACM), Michael Kors (KORS), and Take-Two Interactive Software (TTWO).   They also covered short positions in FLSmidth (Denmark: FLS), Mead Johnson Nutrition (MJN), and Reynolds American (RAI).

At the end of 2016, their largest positions in alphabetical order were: AerCap, Apple, CONSOL Energy, General Motors, and gold.  Their average exposures were 106% long and 81% short.

Embedded below is Greenlight Capital's Q4 letter:



We've posted up a bunch of letters today, so be sure to also check out Third Point's Q4 letter as well as Howard Marks' latest memo.

Greenlight Capital Q2 Letter: Long Chemours (CC)

David Einhorn's hedge fund Greenlight Capital is out with its Q2 letter.  They feel that the 'Brexit' won't be a significant economic event by itself.

Turning to specific stocks, Greenlight outlines its thesis on Chemours (CC), a recent spin-off from DuPont (DD). 

They note, "CC should benefit from the continued recovery of TiO2 prices.  Further, EU regulations are driving adoption of CC's next generation refrigerant Opteon, which should increase fluoroproduts profits.  Lastly, management can reduce costs and shutter unprofitable businesses now that the company is independent of DuPont.  We expect the stock to appreciate as investors refocus on the earnings power of the business, which we think will approach $2.00 in 2017.  Our overall average purchase price is $6.58."

The hedge fund also exited numerous longs during the quarter: Macy's (M), American Capital Agency (AGNC), Baxter (BAX), Oil States International (OIS).

They also covered short positions after the Brexit volatility, including: Intuitive Surgical (ISRG), Under Armour (UA), and United Rentals (URI).

At the end of Q2, Greenlight's largest disclosed longs (in alphabetical order) were: AerCap, Apple, CONSOL Energy, General Motors and gold.  Average exposure was 96% long and 69% short.

Greenlight's Q2 letter is embedded below:



H/T ValueWalk


For other recent hedge fund letters, we also posted up Third Point's Q2 letter here.

Greenlight Capital Q1 Letter: New Positions in Yelp, PVH, Hatteras & American Capital Agency

David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital is out with its first quarter letter.  They returned 3% net in the first quarter after a very difficult 2016 which saw many of their top holdings implode.

During Q1, they started positions in American Capital Agency (AGNC), Hatteras Financial (HTS), PVH (PVH), and Yelp (YELP).  You can read their thesis on those names below.

Additionally, they're now dabbling in natural gas through calendar strips.

At the end of the first quarter, Einhorn's top holdings (alphabetically) were: Apple (AAPL), CONSOL Energy (CNX), General Motors (GM), gold, and Time Warner (TWX).  Their average exposure was 99% long and 79% short.

Embedded below is Greenlight's Q1 letter:

Greenlight Capital Short ARM Holdings

David Einhorn's hedge fund Greenlight Capital is short shares of ARM Holdings traded in the UK.  Per short selling disclosure rules, funds must publicly disclose when they are net short 0.5% of a company's shares or greater.

As of July 21st, Greenlight was net short 1.36% of ARM Holdings shares.  This is up from a 1.23% position on July 10th and a 1.11% net short position on July 8th, 2015.

Per Google Finance, ARM Holdings is "a United Kingdom-based company engaged in designing of microprocessors, physical intellectual property (IP) and related technology and software, and sale of development tools. The Company's offers products, such as 16/32/64-bit RISC microprocessors, data engines, graphics processors, digital libraries, embedded memories, peripherals, software and development tools, as well as analog functions and high-speed connectivity products. The Company's product offering includes microprocessor Cores, physical IP, development tools and support and maintenance services. ARM licenses and sells its technology and products to international electronics companies, which in turn manufacture, market and sell microprocessors, application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), application-specific standard processors (ASSPs) and microcontrollers (MCUs) based on ARM's technology to systems companies for incorporation into a variety of end products."

While this could be an alpha short, it could also potentially be a hedge to Greenlight's tech exposure, as they've been long names like Applied Materials (AMAT), Micron (MU), Apple (AAPL), ON Semiconductor (ON), and SunEdison (SUNE).

For more from this hedge fund, we've posted Greenlight's Q2 letter here and just yesterday highlighted a stock Greenlight's been buying recently.

To see other hedge fund short positions, click that link to scroll through the recent updates.

Greenlight Capital Increases CONSOL Energy Stake

David Einhorn's hedge fund firm Greenlight Capital has filed an amended 13D with the SEC regarding its position in CONSOL Energy (CNX).  Per the filing, Greenlight now owns 12.9% of the company with over 29.6 million shares.

This is up from the 20.5 million shares Greenlight owned at the end of the first quarter. 

An additional Form 4 filed with the SEC by Greenlight indicates that they were buying CNX shares on July 20th, 21st, and 22nd at weighted average prices ranging between $16.3908 to $17.27.

Einhorn isn't the only activist involved in CNX shares, either.  Southeastern Asset Management recently increased its stake to around 21% of the company.  Mason Hawkins' firm would like the company to monetize its E&P portfolio.

In addition to its position in CNX, recently Greenlight also revealed a stake in CNX Coal Resources.

For more from this hedge fund, we recently posted Greenlight's Q2 letter.

Greenlight Capital Q2 Letter: New Positions in Applied Materials, Bank of New York Mellon

David Einhorn's hedge fund Greenlight Capital is out with its second quarter letter.  Greenlight returned (1.5)% in Q2 and year-to-date is (3.3)%.  Their average exposure was 103% long and 86% short, leaving them net long only 17%.  The letter details numerous recent portfolio moves:

New long positions: Applied Materials (AMAT), Bank of New York Mellon (BK), CNX Coal Resources (CNXC)

Sold long positions: Altice (AMS:ATC), Conn's (CONN), EMC (EMC), Marvell Technology (MRVL), Nokia (NOK), Playtech (LON:PTEC)

Covered shorts: Intuitive Surgical (ISRG), Vale (VALE)

Einhorn talks about all of the positions in the letter and also gives commentary on Micron (MU), one of his biggest positions that has sold-off recently.

At the end of Q2, Greenlight's largest positions in alphabetical order were: Apple (AAPL), CONSOL Energy (CNX), General Motors (GM), gold, Micron Technology (MU), and SunEdison (SUNE).

Embedded below is Greenlight's Q2 letter:

   Greenlight Q2 15

ValueWalk first posted the letter.

Greenlight Capital Discloses CNX Coal Resources Stake

David Einhorn's hedge fund firm Greenlight Capital has filed a 13D with the SEC regarding shares of CNX Coal Resources (CNXC).  Per the filing, Einhorn now owns 47.3% of the company with over 5.48 million shares.

The company recently IPO'd and is a master limited partnership (MLP) formed by CONSOL Energy (CNX).  Einhorn's firm owns a sizable stake in the latter as well.

Greenlight bought CNXS shares in the private placement at $15 and also in the open market at $15.05.

We've highlighted other recent portfolio activity from Greenlight here.

Per Google Finance, CNX Coal Resources is "a producer of thermal coal. The Company is formed by CONSOL Energy Inc. (CONSOL Energy) to manage and develop all of its thermal coal operations in Pennsylvania. Its initial assets include around 20% undivided interest in and operational control over, CONSOL Energy's Pennsylvania mining complex, which consists of around three underground mines and related infrastructure that produce bituminous thermal coal that is sold primarily to electric utilities in the eastern United States. Its Pennsylvania mining complex, which includes the Bailey mine, the Enlow Fork mine and the Harvey mine, has coal reserves. The Company mines its reserves from the Pittsburgh No. 8 Coal Seam, which is a contiguous formation of uniform, thermal coal. The Pennsylvania mining complex includes around 785.6 million tons of coal reserves with an average gross heat content of approximately 13,000 British thermal units per pound and an average sulfur content of around 2.38%."

Greenlight Capital & Third Point Buy Green Brick Partners Shares in IPO

David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital and Dan Loeb's Third Point have both filed 13D's and Form 4's with the SEC regarding their stakes in Green Brick Partners (GRBK).

Green Brick came to be via a reverse merger with BioFuel (formerly BIOF) last year.  The company just completed its IPO and Einhorn and Loeb both acquired more shares.  In fact, they've been involved with the company since 2010.

Einhorn now owns 49.9% of Green Brick with over 24.12 million shares per the 13D he filed.  Greenlight bought over 8.4 million shares in the IPO.

Loeb now owns 16.9% of Green Brick with over 8.18 million shares per their separately filed 13D.  Third Point acquired over 2.84 million shares in the IPO at $10 per share.

It's also worth pointing out that the CEO Jim Brickman owns a substantial stake in the company as well and has a ton of industry experience.

Per Google Finance, Green Brick Partners "is a real estate operator. The Company is involved in the purchase and development of land for residential use, construction lending and home building operations. The Company operates through two segments: land development and homebuilding services. Within homebuilding services segment, the Company has two divisions: Texas and Georgia. The Company's land development segment conducts its business under the brand Green Brick Communities."

According to the company's website, Green Brick owns around 3,900 home sites and originates 1,000 secured first lien loans a year.  They also own a controlling interest in 4 homebuilders in Dallas, Texas as well as the fifth largest homebuilder in Atlanta, Georgia.

The company seems to be uniquely positioned due to its focus on Texas, and specifically, the Dallas / Fort Worth metroplex.  These cities/suburbs have very limited housing inventory and high demand, which has been pushing up home prices markedly.  This demand is in part caused by a large number of corporate relocations to the area.

Texas has been attracting these companies via Governor Greg Abbott's focus on tax breaks for businesses who come to the state.  He recently signed $4 billion in tax cuts for businesses and homeowners and also cut the business franchise tax by 25%.  Texas also has no state income tax.

The DFW area specifically has recently seen corporate relocations of Toyota's North American Headquarters, FedEx Office, Liberty Mutual, and many more.  This is bringing thousands of jobs to the area, resulting in a need for more housing supply. 

So home prices are up and inventory is down, but at the same time, many homebuilders are also facing increased costs on materials and labor (shortage of qualified subcontractors, etc).

David Einhorn's Sohn Conference Presentation: Short Pioneer Natural Resources

We've posted up notes from the 2015 Sohn Investment Conference that just ended in New York.  David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital pitched a short of Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD) and embedded below is his full slideshow presentation.


David Einhorn's Sohn Conference Presentation 2015




Check out the rest of the Sohn Conference notes here.

Greenlight Capital Q1 Letter: David Einhorn Cuts Net Exposure In Half

David Einhorn is out with Greenlight Capital's first quarter letter to investors.  Greenlight finished Q1 -1.7% net of fees.  While many investors will care more about Einhorn's equity picks, we think the more noteworthy takeaway is the fact that the hedge fund has cut net exposure in half from 30% down to 14% net long.

Greenlight writes, "Bottom up: short candidates are easy to find ... the opportunity set on the long side is quite constrained.  Top-down: Valuations are on the high side and earnings are in a precarious spot."

Einhorn then touches on the Federal Reserve, noting that, "How fast it tightens should be less important than the fact that it will tighten."

As far as individual equity moves go, Greenlight made the following adjustments: started new positions in AerCap (AER), Chicago Bridge & Iron (CBI), as well as re-entering General Motors (GM) shares.  They sold Aetna (AET), closed shorts in Safeway (SWY), Freescale Semiconductor (FSL), and Lorillard (LO).  However, they started a new short in Reynolds American (which acquired LO.)

Embedded below is Greenlight Capital's Q1 2015 letter with the thesis on their new investments:

Greenlight Capital Adds To Cairn Energy Holdings

David Einhorn's hedge fund Greenlight Capital has added to its stake in London listed Cairn Energy (LON:CNE).  Due to trading on December 12th, Einhorn's fund increased its holding from 4.2% to 6.2% of voting rights. 

Most of the position is via common stock but around 12% is held via a total return swap.  Their latest shares were bought around the 160p mark.

Greenlight first disclosed a 3% in Cairn back in Mach 2012 when shares traded at around 350p.  Since then, they have gone above and below the 3% disclosure threshold a few times and then in January of this year they added shares that cost around 260p each to take the stake to 4.2%. 

For more from this manager, head to David Einhorn's most recent interview.

Per Google Finance, Cairn Energy is "an independent oil and gas exploration and development company. The Company’s operations are organised based on geographical regions. Its geographical segments include North West Europe- North Sea, Atlantic Margin-Greenland, Atlantic Margin-Morocco and the Mediterranean. The Cairn Energy Group’s operations focuses on new exploration activities in Greenland and the Mediterranean. The Company’s operating subsidiaries include Capricorn Oil Limited, Cairn UK Holdings Limited, Capricorn Energy Limited, Cairn Energy Dhangari Limited, Cairn Energy Karnali Limited, Cairn Energy Lumbini Limited, Cairn Energy Malangawa Limited, Cairn Energy Birganj Limited, Capricorn Albania Limited, Capricorn Spain Limited, Capricorn Greenland Exploration 1 Limited and Capricorn Lady Franklin Limited."

David Einhorn: Seeing Buying Opportunities Past Few Weeks

At the Robin Hood Investors Conference this week, Greenlight Capital's David Einhorn sat down with CNBC to talk markets.  He said he's seeing a lot of opportunities now and has bought "a bunch of things" the past couple of weeks.

Einhorn says he's not concerned with the day-to-day swings of the market as that's not his circle of competence.  He mentioned he hasn't been as long as some other people and has used the recent weakness to add to positions/establish new ones.

He continues to like Apple (AAPL), saying it trades at 10x next year's earnings net of cash.  The Greenlight founder also continues to be short AthenaHealth (ATHN).

Lastly, he likes SunEdison (SUNE) and thinks it can head to $32 per share (just under $19 now), arguing that it's a simple thesis but a complicated financial story since they own interests in various companies.


Embedded below are the videos of Einhorn's interview at Robin Hood:


Video 1




Video 2




Video 3




Video 4