Richard Rubin, the founder and manager of Hawkeye Capital, has made some important changes to the fund's top equity positions. A new entrant made the top five, and the remaining four are some intriguing investments as well. The original 13F can be seen here. It's important to track hedge fund sentiment because it has been found that for investors who know where to look, market outperformance is possible (discover the secrets here).

Number one

The top pick of Hawkeye is KapStone Paper and Packaging Corp. (KS), constituting almost a third of the fund's equity portfolio. During the first quarter of 2013, Rubin has slightly decreased the fund's stake in the paper products manufacturer. The reported value of the remaining investment is $84,6 million. The stock has been in an uptrend in 2013, advancing 28% to a current price of approximately $29. It is

(1) I currently own Coca-Cola stock. But I see Coca-Cola (KO) trading at over 22x earnings. It usually trades around 19-20x earnings. Since it may be a bit overvalued based on traditional P/E metrics once you adjust for periods of unusual valuation like the dotcom bubble, I think I will sell the stock and buy something undervalued like Total SA (TOT), which is offering investors an initial earnings yield of 14% once you adjust for one-time events.

(2) I currently own Coca-Cola stock. Considering that the company appears slightly overvalued by traditional P/E metrics, I think I will just let the dividends accumulate on my personal balance sheet, and be an "owner" of the company in the true sense of the word as I reap the benefits of business ownership

IRS chief's resignation demanded, received, accepted. Acting IRS chief Steven Miller resigned Wednesday in the wake of the agency's admission it unfairly screened Tea Party groups seeking tax exempt status from 2010 onward. President Obama called the screening "inexcusable" and emphasized that the IRS was the very last

New Holdings

• Of the four new stocks Baupost added to the portfolio, the biggest purchase was in Elan Corp. (ELN), worth $107.68 million at the end of March. This was the 8th-largest position for Baupost and worth

Parker specializes in barge drilling, onshore drilling, and the tools that drillers need. Unlike Transocean (RIG), Parker does not go way out into the ocean and drill miles under the earth's surface but sticks closer to the shore. Much of the company's operations are off the coast of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico. The second part of the business is selling tools that are needed in drilling. Think Weatherford (WFT) and Baker Hughes (BHI). A good recent article from Seeking Alpha talks about the latest earnings report and the company's $15.9 million fine and is provided in this link.

The drilling operation consists of deep

A probable QE exit can be backed primarily by two reasons -

1. Inflation is trending higher leading to policymakers shifting to restrictive monetary policies
2. Economic growth in the U.S. and globally is robust signaling a QE exit

I will investigate both these reasons to back my conclusion stated above.

The chart below gives the core and headline inflation in the United States. Inflation has declined meaningfully in the recent past indicating relatively weak economic activity. Therefore, if this metric is considered, there is no reason for the Fed to go for a QE exit at a time when the economy seems to be weakening. I

When a firm has strong profitability ratios, it portrays to an investor that it provides a good return on his or her investment. The profitability numbers that I came across for Total weren't that impressive. Keep in mind, however, that this is just one of the many ways to analyze a stock.

Total SA is a France-based integrated international oil and gas company. With operations in more than 130 countries, Total SA is involved in all phases of the petroleum industry, including Upstream (oil and gas exploration, development and production, liquefied natural gas) and Downstream (refining, marketing and the trading and shipping of crude oil and petroleum products). It

CBO slashes deficit estimate. The federal deficit will narrow to $642B in the fiscal year ending in September, the CBO said Tuesday — a meaningful improvement from February's projection of $845B. The revision comes courtesy of higher tax receipts and dividend payments to the Treasury from Fannie (FNMA.OB) and Freddie (FMCC.OB).

Klarman's US long portfolio remained steady in the quarter at ~$3.1B. Large positions in News Corporation and Oracle were reduced substantially during the quarter and those were offset by large increases in portfolio allocation to American International Group and BP plc. Since inception (1982), Baupost Group's US long portfolio has accounted for between 2.4% to 15% of the Assets Under Management (AUM). The current allocation is at the high-end of that range. The rest of the AUM

There are too many articles on Seeking Alpha concerning the top oil companies. These companies have a very similar story to tell. However, the important question is which one is the best bargain among the oil stocks? There is limited analysis comparing the oil majors on similar metrics, even though many analysts are making separate arguments built along the same lines.

To define the juicy oil bargains, we recently compared the stocks of the leading oil/gas companies in the following selections:

Selection 1: Exxon Mobil (XOM) - Chevron (CVX) - Conoco Philips (COP)

Selection 2: BP (BP) - Royal Dutch Shell-Class A (RDS.A)

Selection 3: Apache Corporation (APA) - Anadarko Petroleum (APC) - Conoco Philips - Marathon Oil Corporation (MRO) - Occidental Petroleum(OXY)

Selection 4: TOTAL (TOT) - Exxon Mobil - Petrobras (PBR)

Today, our final selection of juicy oil stocks

However, if you do make decisions based solely on earnings power, it is possible that you may consider a portfolio that consists exclusively of high-quality companies that pay dividends to shareholders, and have strong records of increasing their payouts to shareholders by growing profits at satisfactory risk-adjusted rates over almost all five-year rolling periods.

A large part of the reason why

Source: BP Annual Statement FY12

Recovery of British Petroleum

In this scenario, the big players are attempting to sustain their position in the oil industry as the market is still growing despite the decrease in prominence due to other energy resources. BP is also holding investments in

Royal Dutch Shell (RDS) -- Price and Volume 2005-to-Date

(click to enlarge)

courtesy of bigcharts.com

This may finally be changing; thereby presenting investors with a significant investment opportunity.

Under CEO Peter Voser, corporate leadership has focused upon a strikingly straightforward set of 2012-2015 strategies along with clear metrics to measure results. In my last S.A. article about Shell, I outlined these strategies and tactics, then recounted first-year results and Street reactions.

In this article, I will briefly recap the four-year Plan, update readers on Shell's 2013 current and projected progress against the Plan, and

Visible business progress offset by rising capex intensity

While BP's strong Q1 2013 results confirmed progress in its more focused business strategy, it will take more time to translate into positive operating trends. In addition, rising capex intensity on the back of new projects is likely to limit cash flow expansion in coming months. We see this adequately reflected in the

The Energy Report: Numerous experts, including T. Boone Pickens and Porter Stansberry, have said that, thanks to natural gas shale recovery technology, the U.S. is set to become energy independent. In your new book, "Cold, Hungry and in the Dark: Exploding the Natural Gas Supply Myth," you say that the U.S. has only a five- to seven-year supply of shale gas

There are too many articles on Seeking Alpha concerning the top oil companies. These companies have a very similar story to tell. However, the important question is which one is the best bargain among the oil stocks? There is limited analysis comparing the oil majors on similar metrics, even though many analysts are making separate arguments built along the same lines.

Recently, we compared Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) to its industry competitors, Chevron (CVX) and Conoco Philipps (COP), and tracked the latest investment status of each. Today, we are going to compare BP (BP) with its direct competitor -- Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A). The Gulf oil spill controversy continues and BP is still paying for it, both financially and from a public relations perspective, even three years after the fact. And in its latest conference call, Mr. Voser (CEO of Royal Dutch Shell) bid adieu

There are a number of reasons supporting the view that the rebuilding of BP is progressing favorably.

1) Balance Sheet Still Improving

BP generated $4 billion in cash flow in the quarter, helped by downstream revenue and replacement cost profits from Rosneft and from inventory. BP ended the quarter with a net debt of $17.7 billion. The net

In the case of General Electric, there are two dominant reasons why investors do not like the company:

1. From a dividend and total return perspective, the company has had a rough 10-15 years.
2. GE Capital had been an albatross tied around the neck of a strong industrial company.

One element that explains why General Electric has had a disappointing track record over the past 10 to 15 years is the fact that the company traded

As an investor in commodities, you always need to keep track of the big picture that's impacting not just the macro factors, but also the granular details in each market you're investing in. As discussed in my last column, commodities are facing a particularly strong headwind that's a direct result of a slowdown in global economic activity. The structural problems facing Europe are beginning to have a detrimental effect on activity in other key regions of the globe, namely Asia and China. China has been one of the locomotives behind the spectacular demand in natural resources over the last decade, for everything from soybeans to coal to copper. However, as Chinese economic activity begins to decline so has its demand for natural resources, which has pushed prices of commodities to decade lows.

Within this broad macroeconomic scenario, there is an equally potent subcurrent that is

As the market rally is chugging along, many stocks have advanced to the point where long-term investors see very little value in purchasing shares for the fear that they could be crushed in a market correction. The list in this article has stocks with dividend yields of at least 4% and that are trading for less than 12x TTM earnings. As the Fed is continuing its low-rate expansionary monetary policy, many investors are searching for yield and these dividend stocks should be able to deliver that.

The Fundamentals

B P $43.96

Ever since the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, there has been a sort of cloud hanging over BP's stock. Whether investors are concerned about potential liabilities from ongoing litigation, or if worries over company operating