“Nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes,” said Benjamin Franklin. And with death being a certainty, one would expect that the business of death should always make money.

Of course, how much money is dependent on numerous factors, among which the most important would be how many people are dying. In short: demographics.

Mohnish Pabrai is an Indian-American businessman and investor. For a number of years, he turned heads with the performance of Pabrai Investment Funds since its inception in 1999. Pabrai has high regard for Warren Buffett and admits that his investment style is copied from Buffett and others. We're exploring the topics in his book about value investing.

Chapter 11: Dhando Arbitrage

F3Q09 Earnings Call

September 10, 2009 11:00 am ET

Q2 2009 Earnings Call

June 10, 2009 11:00 am ET

At the end of trading on Friday, March 20, 2009, the Best Portfolio is ahead of the benchmark S&P500 by 4.05% after only seven weeks of comparison. That is largely because our strategy of capturing option premiums as well as some dividends has boosted our performance in a tough market. We also got the benefit of the last two weeks’ surge in resource stocks, especially FCX and Quadra Mining, a couple of copper names with a gold kicker. We have nice gains in AMAT, WFR, BRCM and SVM, a Canadian silver producer. All the rest of the Portfolio is either around even, down somewhat, or a resource stock.

F1Q09 Earnings Call

March 12, 2009 11:00 am ET

We bought more STEI at $2.85 on 2/17/09, only to see it really get cracked the next day, and the one after, as bank stocks took a scary plunge amid the “nationalization” panic that has economic traditionalists quaking in their shoes. Let’s face the facts – we have definitely nationalized Citi (C) at this point, and have made serious bolstering moves in numerous other banks, despite their protestations of solvency. I sincerely hope we will kill the ludicrous mark-to-market nonsense, which doesn’t work in a non-market such as we have now. The banks are a ward of the state for now, like it or not!

It’s been an exciting week. Although the SP500 plunged around 5% due to poor earnings, the Best Portfolio gain for the first two weeks is still 5.95%, frankly much better than I expected in such a short time – but the market has been very kind to a number of our positions. The advance in resource stocks, plus the call premium and dividends earned, has enabled the portfolio to outperform the SP500 by a whopping 5.8% in just two weeks, which obviously is an outlier return. The Portfolio collected option premium on nine positions and also seven dividends accrued (went “Ex”) this week. See the Excel spread attached below.

Well, it looks as though our strategy is paying off very nicely. After just one week, the portfolio is sporting a large gain, and outperforming the SP500 by more than 3%. We have been filled on a total of nine covered call positions, and some of these are already in the money, so if the stocks hold up, we will lose these holdings temporarily at March expiry, but can be glad we made some quick money. I can’t tell you how many times I have had a 20% gain in a stock, held on for a bit more for a month or two, then seen it all disappear in a market slump. Whereas, if I had just written a covered call, the stock would have been taken away from me at a substantial profit, and become someone else’s problem.

Needless to say, this has been a very tough U.S. equity market on the long side. As January unfolded, I became convinced that we were shaping up for some great bargains in value stocks, and that the worst of the carnage for many sectors has passed. The purpose of my contribution is to help investors refocus on fundamentals, sound portfolio management practices, and making a profit from what I expect to be a choppy, fairly flat market that offers some excellent bargains for sharp investors. The inception of the portfolio that you see below is as of Jan 30, 2009 closing prices, when all positions are entered for the first time.

SAC Capital, the $14 billion hedge fund firm run by Steven Cohen has been quite busy with SEC filings as of late. We recently covered SAC's portfolio holdings here. Since then, SAC has amended various 13G filings with the SEC, adjusting many of the positions in its portfolio. All of the following 13G filings were made due to SAC's trading activity on December 31, 2008 or January 1, 2009. In no particular order, here they are:

1. United Therapeutics (UTHR): SAC now shows that it has less than a 0.01% stake in UTHR. Back on September 30, 2008, it had owned 209,562 shares of UTHR. Therefore, effectively, it has sold off almost its entire stake.
2. OM Group (OMG): SAC now has a 0% stake in OMG and holds zero shares.
3. Savient Pharmaceuticals (SVNT): SAC has completely sold out of its SVNT position and now owns zero shares according to its 13G. It previously owned 50,675 shares.
4. True Religion Apparel (TRLG): SAC completely sold out of its TRLG position and as of its latest 13G, shows that it holds zero shares. It previously held 278,695 shares.
5. Zale Corporation (ZLC): SAC now holds zero shares of ZLC. It previously held 76,049 shares.
6. Tween Brands (TWB): SAC sold out of its entire position in TWB.
7. WCI Communities (WCI): It no longer holds any shares of WCIMQ.
8. Pilgrim's Pride (PPC): SAC sold all of its PGPDQ shares.
9. Cabot Corporation (CBT): It no longer owns any CBT.
10. Albemarle (ALB): SAC now holds a 0.3% stake in ALB (300,000 shares). It previously owned 200,000 shares.
11. Inspire Pharmaceuticals (ISPH): It no longer owns any ISPH.
12. Incyte (INCY): SAC has now disclosed that it has a 0.4% stake in INCY, thereby drastically reducing its holdings. It previously held in excess of two million shares.
13. Indevus Pharmaceuticals (IDEV): It completely sold out of its IDEV position.
14. Keryx Biopharmaceuticals (KERX): SAC no longer holds KERX.
15. Emergency Medical Services (EMS): SAC has disclosed that now, it only owns a 1.2% stake in EMS, drastically reducing its position from last disclosure.
16. Charlotte Russe (CHIC): It completely sold out of its position.
17. Cymer (CYMI): It completely sold out of CYMI.
18. Biomarin Pharmaceutical (BMRN): SAC sold out of its entire position.
19. Chiquita Brands (CQB): It no longer owns CQB.
20. Applied Energetics (AERG): It completely sold out of AERG.
21. Century Aluminum (CENX) - It completely sold out of its position.
22. American Apparel (APP): SAC no longer owns any APP.
23. Acorda Therapeutics (ACOR): It completely sold out of this name.
24. P.F. Chang's China Bistro (PFCB): It disclosed that it now owns a 1.3% stake in the company.
25. Vaxgen (VXGN): It is now showing a 1.6% stake in VXGN.
26. Fresh Del Monte Produce (FDP): It is now showing a less than 0.1% ownership stake.
27. Navistar International (NAV): It disclosed that it now has a 2.1% stake in NAV.
28. Vanda Pharmaceuticals (VNDA): It sold completely out of its position.
29. Sanderson Farms (SAFM): It also sold completely out of this name.
30. Assured Guaranty (AGO): It now has a 0.2% ownership stake in AGO.
31. Akorn (AKRX): It now shows a 0.3% ownership stake.
32. Auxilium Pharmaceuticals (AUXL): It now shows a 0.3% ownership stake in this name, as well.
33. Stewart Enterprises (STEI): SAC now has a 4% ownership stake in STEI.
34. Ocean Power Technologies (OPTT): Due to activity on January 1, 2009, SAC now shows a 4.9% ownership stake in the company
35. Hasbro (HAS): Activity with its shares on December 31, 2008 has lead SAC to disclose a 3.6% ownership stake in HAS.
36. Cougar Biotechnology (CGRB): SAC has disclosed that it now has a less than 0.1% ownership stake in the company.
37. Orexigen Therapeutics (OREX): SAC now shows a 4.9% ownership stake in OREX.

As you can see, from a collective 37 separate 13G filings, for the most part, SAC was reducing many of its position sizes. We just want to remind everyone again, that SAC has a tendency to move in and out of positions very quickly, so keep that in mind. We're merely relaying the information that was filed with the SEC and we will update any other positions it might change in the future. SAC decreased equity exposure by almost half from quarter to quarter (based on 13F filings with the SEC) and it was reported SAC was going to cash back in October. Also interesting is that many of the largest positions in its portfolio consist of debt of various companies.

Q4 2008 Earnings Call

December 19, 2008 11:00 am ET

The worst crash since 2001... 1987... 1937. As the National Debt Meter ran out of digits on Time Square earlier this week, the comparisons of the current crash with earlier catastrophic events are on a sliding scale backward.

On Monday, they may compare Friday's performance to 1929.

Was it that Stewart Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:STEI) was too unreasonable in insisting that Service Corporation International (NYSE:SCI) accept all financing risk in the transaction, as SCI claims? Or was it the declining state of the credit market, as Stewart claims?

In any case, SCI has withdrawn its buyout offer of $11 per share.

Founded in 1910, Stewart Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:STEI) is the second largest provider of services in the death-care industry in the U.S.

I first told Today’s Financial News readers about this stock back in February (Smart Stock Investing: The ultimate contrarian play). At the time, it was trading at around $6.40 a share.

Author's Note: Before reading this update, make sure you check out the preface to the series I'm doing on Hedge Fund 13F's here.

It's time to continue the Hedge Fund tracking series. If you've missed them, I've already covered Jeffrey Gendell's Tontine Partners here, Bret Barakett's Tremblant Capital here, Peter Thiel's Clarium Capital here, Stephen Mandel's Lone Pine Capital here, Lee Ainslie's Maverick Capital here, John Griffin's Blue Ridge Capital here, Boone Pickens' BP Capital here, Louis Bacon's Moore Capital Management here, and Paul Tudor Jones' Tudor Investment Corp here.

F3Q08 Earnings Call

September 10, 2008 11:00 am ET

Back on February 28 of this year, I recommended Stewart Enterprises, Inc. (STEI) to TFN readers as a long-term hold. Check out my initial research report here.

Slowly but surely, we’ve seen our stock value increase about 5% for this national supplier of “death care services”.

Q2 2008 Earnings Call

June 10, 2008 11:00 am ET

Stewart Enterprises, Inc.(STEI)

F1Q08 (Qtr End 1/31/08) Earnings Call