David Einhorn: Recent Purchase Aspen Insurance Holdings Ltd., Recent Top Holdings Inlcude Pfizer Inc.

1. Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital LP fund gained 16.3 percent in the second quarter. YTD to the end of second quarter gain was 21.5 percent, boosted by investments in Ford Motor Co. debt. The fund lost 23 percent last year.


2. Einhorn told investors he switched all of its holdings in a gold exchange-traded fund into bullion during the second quarter. The move at a minimum provide some savings as the costs of storing gold are less than the fees for SPDR Gold Trust.


3. Einhorn expect rise in stocks to be ‘sparse’ and he currently has almost no net long exposure. “This comes from our bottom-up inability to find many good opportunities,” the letter said. “We are very cautious of the significant headwinds we still believe the economy faces.”


4. 2Q09 Purchase: Aspen Insurance Holdings Ltd. (AHL, Financial)


Greenlight said it had bought reinsurance stocks including Aspen Insurance Holdings Ltd. during the second quarter.


Aspen Insurance Holdings is a Bermudian holding company that provides property and casualty reinsurance in the global market property and liability insurance principally in the United Kingdom and surplus lines insurance in the United States. Aspen Insurance Holdings Ltd. has a market cap of $2.06 billion; its shares were traded at around $24.87 with a P/E ratio of 14.1 and P/S ratio of 1.1. The dividend yield of Aspen Insurance Holdings Ltd. stocks is 2.4%.


Einhorn initiated a position of 917,119 shares in the insurance company in 4Q08. He increased the stake to 2,378,532 shares in 1Q09. It looks like the purchase continued in 1Q09.


Commenting on the investment in the company, Einhorn said in the letter: “The reinsurance industry suffered a double whammy last year due to storm damage and investment losses. This appears to be leading to an improved competitive environment and higher returns on capital.”


5. Einhorn’s largest holdings at the end of 2Q09 include and Pfizer Inc.(PFE, Financial), the world’s biggest drugmaker


Pfizer Inc is a research-based global pharmaceutical company. Pfizer Inc has a market cap of $101.69 billion; its shares were traded at around $15.07 with a P/E ratio of 6.5 and P/S ratio of 2.1. The dividend yield of Pfizer Inc stocks is 4.3%. Pfizer Inc had an annual average earning growth of 11% over the past 10 years. GuruFocus rated Pfizer Inc the business predictability rank of 2.5-star.


Einhorn bought 5,930,000 shares in the quarter that ended on 03/31/2009, which is 3.4% of the $2.38 billion portfolio of Greenlight Capital Inc.


6. Other top holdings as of end of 2Q09 were Arkema SA, a chemical maker in Paris; Criteria CaixaCorp, a Barcelona-based holding company for Spain’s largest savings bank; the debt of Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford; gold.