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.

据WSJ报道：

Paulson & Co.週三提交給美国证券交易委員会(Securities and Exchange Commission)的持股报告显示﹐第二季度该公司买进1.68亿股BAC(Bank of America Corp.)股票﹐另外还大举买进了另外两家银行股份。

根据报告﹐如果Paulson & Co.目前仍持有這些股份﹐该基金则是BAC第四大股东。

基本状况:
BAC 普通股总流通量 86.5亿
第二季BAC 股价 LOW: 6.82 HIGH: 14.79
最近平均日交易量：4.87亿
1.68亿股占总流通量的1.94%。

如果管理的公开交易证券价值一旦超过1亿美元，对冲基金和共同基金经理就必须在新季度开始后的45天内向美国证券交易委员会(SEC)提交13F表格，披露他们最大的几笔投资。即使是小型投资者也可获悉这些基金的持股状况，要做的只是登陆SEC的网站，在“搜索公司文件”栏目下搜索某家投资公司便可查到相关信息。

按照第二季BAC的表现来看，就算Paulson & Co。的交易员是分别在4月初及5月中才真正建仓的话（从当时的突发交易量中假设而来），其平均成本应该不会高于10。 按照今日收盘价15.93 来讲，手中的头寸已经获利约60% 即10亿。

这次被高调披露其持有状况，可理解为对冲基金向对普通投资者发出come and get me的信号。特别是从BAC最近出现的严重超买回调势头已经形成的状况下，这个Timing不能不让人觉得这次是故意放大消息作用，希望能形成一个让其更容易出货的局面。

以PAULSON & CO按规定Report来估算PAULSON & CO 平均持股时间，从2008年3月31日的持股，到最近2009年6月30日的，平均下来，每个股大概抱三个月就处理掉。半数多的股在季度报表中只出现一次(即平均持股时间三个月)。 最长的出现过5次，BSX，持有1年半，也可能更长。所以6月30日前PAULSON & CO 进的BAC，说明不了什么，吐露出来太晚了。所以应是BAC出货时间。