market folly

David Einhorn's hedge fund Greenlight Capital just sent out its third quarter letter to investors and in it they reveal some of their latest portfolio activity. Einhorn's firm initiated brand new positions in CBS Corp (CBS), General Motors (GM), and Marvell Technology (MRVL) in the third quarter.

CBS Corp (CBS)

Greenlight likes CBS due to its growing retransmission fees, monetization of their content library, as well as the potential for increased advertising spending by clients. The hedge fund bought CBS at $20.79 per share (less than 10x their estimate of 2012 earnings) and it now trades just north of $25.

General Motors (GM)

The hedge fund writes on their new position in the largest automaker in the US that IPO'd last year: "GM is being priced by the market as a cyclical company trading at less than 6x this year's earnings. While some may see it as normal to value cyclicals at low multiples of peak earnings, we believe that 2011 is not a peak and, in fact, is below mid-cycle." They bought shares at $25.78 and GM currently trades around $24.

Marvell Technology (MRVL)

Einhorn's firm believes that hard disk drives won't become extinct anytime soon (the major bear case). They think the company will buy back 12% of its float and Greenlight bought at $14.35 per share (currently trades around $14.40).

The letter also follows up on Einhorn's short case on Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR) from the Value Investing Congress. Lastly, Greenlight mentions that they've sold out of their long positions in Pfizer (PFE) and BP (BP) during the quarter and covered their short of Amedisys (AMED).

Greenlight's Top Holdings at the end of Q3 in alphabetical order:

Apple (AAPL)
Gold
Market Vectors Gold Miners (GDX)
Microsoft (MSFT)
Vodafone Group (VOD)


Embedded below is Greenlight Capital's Q3 letter:



For more from Greenlight Capital, we detailed last week how Einhorn was buying gold miners.