John Paulson of Paulson & Co is one of America's most notorious hedge fund managers. He gained fame after betting against subprime mortgages and personally making over $5 billiion in 2010. However 2011 has not been kind to Paulson with both of his hedge funds down more than 20% through August.
Investors are reportedly anticipating Paulson's clients withdrawing from his funds, which would force Paulson & Co to sell holdings in order to meet withdrawal requests. Selling pressure by Paulson could adversely affect the share price of the underlying holdings, so investors should take of his largest positions.
Paulson did quite well by making an early investment in Gold via (GLD), but as we have seen in recent weeks GLD has been hit hard. Given that it is his largest holding and most likely one of his more profitable long-term positions, it is a logical sell candidate to meet any potential liquidity demands in his two hedge funds. While I think that gold mining stocks still offer some attractive opportunities versus the underlying price of gold, we may see lower gold prices in the short term. This would not bode well for Paulson, especially given that his second largest holding is also in the preciousl metal sector, gold miner Anglogold Ashanti (AU).
Paulson has also been hurt by his heavy exposure to financials, with a 48% exposure to the financial sector as of 6/30/11. If the European sovereign debt situation further drags down financial stocks in the coming weeks or months, this could further hurt Paulson's performance.
Using AlphaClone, I generated a list of Paulson & Co's top 50 holdings. I will be watching this closely in the coming weeks for any extra-ordinary selling pressure:
| SHARE PRICE | MARKET VALUE in thousands | SHARES HELD in thousands | |||||
| Ticker | Last Close | 6/30/11 Close | Total | % Change | Total | % Portfolio | |
| SPDR Gold | GLD | 156.22 | 146 | 4599032 | 4.4% | 31500 | 16.3% |
| Anglogold Ashanti L... | AU | 41.03 | 41.97 | 1680880 | -14.6% | 39935 | 6.0% |
| Citigroup Inc | C | 25.92 | 41.63 | 1395148 | -23.5% | 33505 | 4.9% |
| Anadarko Petroleum ... | APC | 67.68 | 76.66 | 1282828 | -26.2% | 16712 | 4.5% |
| Transocean Ltd | RIG | 50.49 | 63.58 | 1214374 | -36.3% | 18810 | 4.3% |
| Capital One Financial | COF | 40.94 | 51.61 | 1090237 | 16.6% | 21100 | 3.9% |
| Hartford Financial | HIG | 15.82 | 26.23 | 1068472 | -9.7% | 40518 | 3.8% |
| Wells Fargo & Co | WFC | 24.45 | 27.94 | 942816 | 45.1% | 33600 | 3.3% |
| Hewlett-Packard Co | HPQ | 23.19 | 36.21 | 855400 | -16.5% | 23500 | 3.0% |
| Suntrust Bank Inc | STI | 18.03 | 25.73 | 829065 | -16.2% | 32134 | 2.9% |
| Lubrizol Corp (... | LZ | 134.97 | 133.91 | 733160 | -8.8% | 5460 | 2.6% |
| Bank of America Corp | BAC | 6.16 | 10.95 | 662475 | -59.8% | 60445 | 2.3% |
| Weyerhaeuser Co | WY | 15.95 | 21.67 | 655800 | -15.9% | 30000 | 2.3% |
| Xl Group PLC | XL | 18.84 | 21.86 | 620495 | -14.2% | 28230 | 2.2% |
| MGM Resorts Int | MGM | 10.27 | 13.21 | 550857 | -4.4% | 41700 | 2.0% |
| Comcast Corp Class A | CMCSA | 22 | 25.23 | 514402 | -48.0% | 20300 | 1.8% |
| Baxter International | BAX | 55.66 | 59.35 | 456629 | 6.2% | 7650 | 1.6% |
| American Capital | ACAS | 7.08 | 9.93 | 434189 | 0.3% | 43725 | 1.5% |
| Life Tech Corp | LIFE | 37.73 | 52.07 | 391566 | New | 7520 | 1.4% |
| Mylan Inc | MYL | 17.71 | 24.67 | 368570 | -39.6% | 14940 | 1.3% |
| Blackrock Inc | BLK | 148.55 | 190.23 | 360603 | -10.3% | 1880 | 1.3% |
| Gold Field Ltd | GFI | 15.35 | 14.47 | 360373 | -20.8% | 24700 | 1.3% |
| CB Richard Ellis Gr... | CBG | 13.93 | 25.11 | 338985 | -6.0% | 13500 | 1.2% |
| Ralcorp Holdings Inc | RAH | 76 | 86.58 | 319653 | 1067.8% | 3692 | 1.1% |
| Rock-Tenn Co Class A | RKT | 50.15 | 66.1 | 294401 | 324.5% | 4438 | 1.0% |
| Savvis Cp | SVVS | 39.5 | 39.53 | 225321 | New | 5700 | 0.8% |
| Lear Corporation | LEA | 42.53 | 53.34 | 224636 | 9.4% | 4200 | 0.8% |
| Whirlpool | WHR | 50.41 | 80.61 | 203300 | -19.3% | 2500 | 0.7% |
| Teva Pharm Ind Inc | TEVA | 36.4 | 47.95 | 201627 | -9.7% | 4181 | 0.7% |
| Genon Energy | GEN | 2.83 | 3.86 | 199201 | 1.3% | 51606 | 0.7% |
| CNO Fnancial Grp | CNO | 5.34 | 7.91 | 193439 | 5.3% | 24455 | 0.7% |
| JP Morgan Chase & Co | JPM | 30.47 | 40.69 | 192418 | -16.5% | 4700 | 0.7% |
| Medtronic Inc | MDT | 33.74 | 38.28 | 187834 | -48.7% | 4875 | 0.7% |
| Novagold Resources Inc | NG | 6.74 | 9.2 | 185673 | -29.1% | 20182 | 0.7% |
| Popular Inc | BPOP | 1.46 | 2.76 | 184920 | -5.2% | 67000 | 0.7% |
| News Corp Ltd | NWS | 15.92 | 17.59 | 184080 | New | 10400 | 0.7% |
| Southern Union Co | SUG | 40.65 | 40.15 | 181880 | New | 4530 | 0.6% |
| Family Dollar Stores | FDO | 53.31 | 52.37 | 181595 | 2.4% | 3455 | 0.6% |
| Liberty Interactive | LINTA | 15.71 | 16.77 | 167700 | 4.5% | 10000 | 0.6% |
| Telzuit Medical | TZMT | 0.01 | 0.01 | 162823 | -29.2% | 29390 | 0.6% |
| Alpha Natural Resou... | ANR | 18.92 | 45.44 | 154416 | -78.3% | 3398 | 0.5% |
| Mosaic Company | MOS | 57.19 | 67.68 | 152393 | New | 2250 | 0.5% |
| Anglogold Ashanti Ltd | AU | 47.7 | 49.15 | 149670 | -7.3% | 3000 | 0.5% |
| Scripps Networks Int | SNI | 39.01 | 48.76 | 146640 | -2.4% | 3000 | 0.5% |
| Veeco Instruments | VECO | 26.94 | 48.41 | 145230 | -4.8% | 3000 | 0.5% |
| Tenet Healthcare Corp | THC | 4.03 | 6.24 | 124800 | New | 20000 | 0.4% |
| The Howard Hughs | HHC | 42.64 | 65.04 | 120324 | -22.4% | 1850 | 0.4% |
| Regions Financial Cp | RF | 3.43 | 6.18 | 119931 | -14.6% | 19344 | 0.4% |
| SL Green Realty Corp | SLG | 60.7 | 82.87 | 116018 | 10.2% | 1400 | 0.4% |
Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.
