market folly

In a 13G filing with the SEC due to activity on March 6th, 2009, Lone Pine Capital has disclosed a 5.1% ownership stake in Strayer Education (STRA) with 714,764 shares beneficially owned. This is a brand new position for Stephen Mandel's hedge fund, as they previously did not show a stake when we covered their portfolio in its entirety a few weeks ago. This is yet another brand new position for them, as they also recently filed a 13G on their new position in Ctrip.com (CTRP).

Lone Pine Capital is a hedge fund managed by Stephen Mandel Jr. His $7 Billion fund has returned over 25% annually since its inception in 1997. But obviously, last year was rough on them and many others, as noted in our list of 2008 year end hedge fund performance numbers. Why is Mandel worth following you might ask? Well, he served as a consumer/retail analyst for Tiger Management back in the day for legendary investor Julian Robertson. Robertson's proteges/right-hand men have been nicknamed the "Tiger Cubs" and many have started their own funds. So, not only has Mandel learned from one of the best, but he has put up some very solid returns himself. Mandel is well versed in the ways of finding undervalued companies and his funds typically like to sniff out solid companies with good management that are trading below their intrinsic value. We just recently covered their entire long portfolio through their latest 13F filing.

Taken from Google Finance, Strayer is "a post-secondary education services corporation. The Company offers a variety of academic programs through its wholly owned subsidiary, Strayer University, Inc., both in classroom courses and online via the Internet. The Strayer University is an institution of higher learning that offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs in business administration, accounting, information technology, education and public administration at 65 campuses."