Tuesday, October 13, 2009

John Paulson buys 10% of Conseco


Another cheap stock, that got off the bottom, that is now in play again at higher prices. John Paulson, who made $3.7 billion in 07, $2.5 billion in 08, and who also picked up 100 million shares of BAC at 10, now has a 10% stake in Conesco (CNO 4.99), a stock that the bears called "beleaguered."

Tomorrow, they get run over again.

Conseco is doing a raise of $200 million, and Paulson is taking down 16.4 million shares.

He'll own almost 10%.

And if I tout it tonight, do I get credit for the $4.99 closing price, ala in the style of Meredith Whitney, or the actual price (5.70) that it is trading in the after-hours on this news?

Isn't that ridiculous? So why didn't anyone call out Meredith on her Goldman gain? After all, didn't she tout the 34% Goldman gain, when it was actually no better than 27%?

It's the first sentence in the summary of her research below. If you bought Goldman  the day she touted it, on July 13, at the opening price of 146.72, and sold it at today's open at 186.41 you booked 27%. But not according to her math!

But then again, she said housing prices were going down another 25%! Maybe you better not trust her math!

So if I tout Conseco, and if it hits 6.66 tomorrow, does that mean I can say that I advertised a 34% gain?

GS DG Meredith                                                                                                                           

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great point. That anal-ist bullshit number manipulation has existed for years, and few people seem to know how deceptive it is.

Anonymous said...

Is it still a buy at 6 tomorrow?

Palmoni said...

Yeh, my friend the Z man, has been all over this name as he's been saying the stock is completely misunderstood.

Paulson's investment will make the picture a lot clearer.

Book's still at double digits.

Anonymous said...

Thanks. do you know the cash on hand?