Paulson fund buys 168M shares of Bank of America

Paulson fund buys 168M shares of Bank of America

Paulson & Co. scoops up Bank of America shares worth about $2.67 billion, 4th-largest stake

Comment: It doesn't say, however, that Paulson fund buys from open market.

On Wednesday August 12, 2009, 7:21 pm EDT

NEW YORK (AP) -- The hedge fund run by John Paulson, who foresaw the distress in subprime mortgages and reaped billions by betting against the related securities, has bought about 168 million shares of Bank of America Corp., according to a regulatory filing Wednesday.

That makes Paulson & Co. the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank's fourth-largest shareholder, according to data from investor Web site LionShares. State Street Global Advisors is bank's top holder, with about 357.2 million shares, and Barclays Global Investors NA and Vanguard Group each own more than 200 million shares of the bank.

In a regular quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission required by hedge funds managing large sums, Paulson & Co. disclosed it bought nearly 168 million shares in the bank in the quarter ended June 30. Based on Bank of America's closing price of $15.93 on Wednesday, that implies a stake worth about $2.67 billion.

Bank of America, along with Citigroup Inc. and insurance giant American International Group Inc., is among the largest recipients of government aid. It has received $45 billion from the federal government's $700 billion bank rescue program.

Paulson also purchased 35 million shares of Regions Financial Corp., taking the No. 2 shareholder spot behind State Street and ahead of Barclays, and 17 million shares of Capital One Financial Corp., becoming that bank's fifth-largest shareholder.

Regions Financial, like other banks, is facing mounting loan losses as more customers fall behind on payments amid the lingering recession. The Birmingham, Ala.-based bank last month said its portfolios of residential homebuilder loans, home-equity loans in Florida and condominium loans continue to be the worst performing.

Bank of America shares rose 46 cents, or 2.9 percent, to $16.39 during aftermarket trading, while shares of Regions Financial rose 26 cents, or 5.4 percent, to $5.08 after-hours. Capital One shares rose 41 cents to $34.20, after closing the regular session up $1.03, or 3.1 percent, at $33.79.

Paulson also purchased sizable stakes last quarter in gold producers such as Anglogold Ashanti, Kinross Gold Corp. and Gold Fields Ltd., drugmakers Boston Scientific Corp., Schering-Plough and Wyeth, and server and software maker Sun Microsystems Inc.

據WSJ報道：

Paulson & Co.週三提交給美國證券交易委員會(Securities and Exchange Commission)的持股報告顯示﹐第二季度該公司買進1.68億股BAC(Bank of America Corp.)股票﹐另外還大舉買進了另外兩家銀行股份。

根據報告﹐如果Paulson & Co.目前仍持有這些股份﹐該基金則是BAC第四大股東。

基本狀況:
BAC 普通股總流通量 86.5億
第二季BAC 股價 LOW: 6.82 HIGH: 14.79
最近平均日交易量：4.87億
1.68億股占總流通量的1.94%。

如果管理的公開交易證券價值一旦超過1億美元，對衝基金和共同基金經理就必須在新季度開始後的45天內向美國證券交易委員會(SEC)提交13F表格，披露他們最大的幾筆投資。即使是小型投資者也可獲悉這些基金的持股狀況，要做的隻是登陸SEC的網站，在“搜索公司文件”欄目下搜索某家投資公司便可查到相關信息。

按照第二季BAC的表現來看，就算Paulson & Co。的交易員是分別在4月初及5月中才真正建倉的話（從當時的突發交易量中假設而來），其平均成本應該不會高於10。 按照今日收盤價15.93 來講，手中的頭寸已經獲利約60% 即10億。

這次被高調披露其持有狀況，可理解為對衝基金向對普通投資者發出come and get me的信號。特別是從BAC最近出現的嚴重超買回調勢頭已經形成的狀況下，這個Timing不能不讓人覺得這次是故意放大消息作用，希望能形成一個讓其更容易出貨的局麵。

以PAULSON & CO按規定Report來估算PAULSON & CO 平均持股時間，從2008年3月31日的持股，到最近2009年6月30日的，平均下來，每個股大概抱三個月就處理掉。半數多的股在季度報表中隻出現一次(即平均持股時間三個月)。 最長的出現過5次，BSX，持有1年半，也可能更長。所以6月30日前PAULSON & CO 進的BAC，說明不了什麽，吐露出來太晚了。所以應是BAC出貨時間。