David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital recently released its third-quarter letter to investors, reporting a 17.7% 2022 return and updating them on portfolio changes.
Many investors think of Einhorn as only a short-seller. While the famed investor has had a few notable short calls in this career, he puts quite a bit of capital to work on the long side too. Given the long-term performance of the market and its trend, that only makes sense.
So far, it’s working out quite well for Einhorn & Co.
His firm generated a 4% return in the third quarter and brought its year-to-date return up to 17.7%. In a year marred by volatility, the long/short approach from Einhorn is working. Compare that to the roughly 22% decline in the S&P 500, and Greenlight’s results are even more impressive.
What Is David Einhorn Buying and Selling?
While we will likely not receive Greenlight’s Form 13F filing until November — as is the norm — we can use Greenlight’s recent investor letter as a partial update.
Coming into the third quarter, Chemours (US:CC) was the seventh largest position for the fund, with a value of $67.4 million. Then the position was reduced significantly in the second quarter (by 67%) and, according to Greenlight’s recent update, closed entirely in the third quarter.
According to the fund: “While the company could release substantial value by separating its commodity-driven titanium dioxide business from its rapidly growing ESG-friendly refrigerant business, we do not believe that management is currently interested in pursuing a separation.”
Further, a deteriorating economic situation was another factor in closing the position — one that Greenlight had held for roughly three years.
Greenlight also closed its positions in Playboy (US:PLBY), International Seaways (US:INSW) and Warner Bros. Discovery (US:WBD). At the end of Q2, the value for those positions stood at $5.2 million, $9.5 million and $22.1 million, respectively.
Interestingly, Greenlight reduced its positions in Playboy and International Seaways by roughly 50% in the second quarter, so fully closing them out is not surprising. However, it is surprising to see the about-face the firm took on Warner Bros. Discovery, a new position in the second quarter.
At the end of Q2, Greenlight had 1.652 million shares in WBD valued at $22.1 million. After completely closing it out in Q3, the firm noted, “We are trying to avoid levered equities in the current economic environment…we lost approximately 40% on WBD in half a year.”
As for Greenlight’s current stance and going into Q4, Einhorn says: “In a correction, ‘buy-the-dip’ gets promptly rewarded. In a bear market, not so much. We haven’t had a bear market since 2008-2009. Our strategy is to remain positioned bearish and to gradually stockpile dry powder, enabling us to make new investments as opportunities present themselves.”
This article originally appeared on Fintel
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