Contrarian David Dreman Bullish About the Market

Last week contrarian investor David Dreman said the following about the stock market: “Growth won’t slow down that much. We can have a market that still continues to be positive through the year. This year will continue to be a happy year.” The stock market is up 1.5% since then.

David Dreman is the founder and chairman Dreman Value Management. Dreman currently has $5.5 billion under management. He was hit hard during the 2008 crisis and his AUM took a big hit. He was managing $22 billion in 2007.

At the end of December, Dreman’s 13F portfolio had $4.9 billion in holdings. Five of his top six holdings were energy companies. Thanks to his shrewd stock picks, Dreman has outperformed the market so far in 2011. Here is how his top stock picks performed since the end of December:

Company	Ticker	Return	Value (Millions)
ANADARKO PETROLEUM CORP	APC	6.2%	52
DEL MONTE FOODS CO	DLM	1.5%	47
W & T OFFSHORE INC	WTI	14.0%	46
DEVON ENERGY CORP NEW	DVN	18.8%	44
TESORO CORP	TSO	37.5%	44
SUPERIOR ENERGY SERVICES	SPN	10.1%	44
HOSPITALITY PROPERTIES	HPT	0.4%	43
JABIL CIRCUIT INC	JBL	-5.4%	43
APACHE CORP	APA	5.7%	42
JONES GROUP INC	JNY	-19.4%	42
ESTERLINE TECHNOLOGIES	ESL	3.4%	41
NEW GOLD INC	NGD	11.0%	41
MICROSEMI CORP	MSCC	-13.2%	41
ALERE INC	ALR	1.1%	41
ANIXTER INTERNATIONAL INC	AXE	14.4%	40
O M GROUP INC	OMG	-8.9%	40
MEDICAL PROPERTIES TRUST	MPW	5.7%	40
RAYMOND JAMES FINANCIAL	RJF	13.3%	40
GENERAL CABLE CORP DEL	BGC	19.1%	39
MEDNAX INC	MD	-5.0%	39
CHARLES RIVER LABS INTL INC	CRL	9.9%	39
C B L & ASSOCIATES PPTYS INC	CBL	-1.3%	39
THOMPSON CREEK METALS CO	TC	-15.4%	39
AMEDISYS INC	AMED	3.2%	39
ALLIANT TECHSYSTEMS INC	ATK	-6.0%	39
COMMONWEALTH REIT	CWH	1.8%	39
BRINKER INTERNATIONAL INC	EAT	15.8%	39
ATWOOD OCEANICS INC	ATW	19.6%	38
APOLLO INVESTMENT CORP	AINV	6.4%	38
ALLIED WORLD ASSUR CO	AWH	4.3%	38
PROTECTIVE LIFE CORP	PL	-1.3%	38
ARRIS GROUP INC	ARRS	8.0%	38
GRAFTECH INTERNATIONAL LTD	GTI	1.3%	38
BRINKS CO	BCO	19.3%	38
CONTANGO OIL AND GAS	MCF	2.4%	38
CACI INTERNATIONAL INC	CACI	11.5%	38
TELEFLEX INC	TFX	7.2%	38
BANK OF HAWAII CORP	BOH	-1.6%	37
HEALTHSPRING INC	HS	43.6%	37
TUTOR PERINI CORP	TPC	10.4%	37

Dreman’s top holdings returned 6.4% since the end of December, beating the SPY by 3.1 percentage points. His top energy picks included APC, WTI, DVN, TSO, SPN and APA. Legendary oilman T. Boone Pickens also has DVN in his portfolio. His best performing top position is Healthspring. George Soros, Steve Cohen and Jim Simons are among hedge funds with HS positions.

Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.