market folly

David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital has released its fourth quarter 2017 letter.  They finished the year up 1.6%.

Greenlight Takes New Stakes in Brighthouse Financial, Twitter, Ensco, Time Warner

The hedge fund firm initiated numerous new positions recently.

The hedge fund's new stake in Brighthouse Financial (BHF) is all about valuation.  The company was spun out of MetLife and they feel analysts have been too negative on BHF's prospects.  They feel shares are trading at a 40-50% discount to peers and note management is incentivized if shares appreciate.

Einhorn's firm also jumped back into Time Warner shares (TWX), a previous holding.  They utilized volatility in the name to re-establish a stake as the US government has opposed their sale to AT&T (T).  Greenlight feels the government has a weak anti-trust case but even if they somehow win, shares are still cheap and the company has strategic options.

Greenlight also entered Twitter (TWTR) shares with their thesis being that the user experience has improved yielding growth in new users and time spent on the platform.  They feel the company now has a better pitch to advertisers, yielding revenue growth.  The company has around a 25% margin gap to other social media peers and Greenlight feels they can close the gap.  (Note: David Einhorn is on Twitter, though he doesn't post about the market, usually just poker.)

Embedded below is Greenlight Capital's Q4 2017 letter:



For more from this manager, be sure to also check out David Einhorn's recent investment talk at  Oxford Union.