Billionaire Richard Perry’s Perry Capital Top Bets For This Quarter

#3 Ball Corporation (NYSE:BLL)

– Shares Owned by Perry Capital (as of December 31): 2.97 million

– Value of Holding (as of September 30): $216.35 million

Amid a 17% rise in Ball Corporation (NYSE:BLL)’s stock during the fourth quarter, Perry Capital reduced its stake in the company by 14%. Even though Ball Corporation (NYSE:BLL)’s stock has given up more than half of those gains this year as it has declined by 10.4% year-to-date, it is still trading comfortably above the sub-$60 level. On January 18, the company revealed that European regulators have given a green light to acquire Rexam PLC. For the fourth quarter, Ball Corporation reported EPS of $0.80 on revenue of $1.81 billion versus analysts’ expectations of EPS of $0.75 on revenue of $1.94 billion. On January 29, analysts at Jefferies Group reiterated their ‘Buy’ rating on the stock, while lowering their price target to $83 from $87. Doug Silverman and Alexander Klabin’s Senator Investment Group increased its stake in Ball Corporation by 10% to 3.85 million shares during the October-December period.

#2 American International Group Inc (NYSE:AIG)

– Shares Owned by Perry Capital (as of December 31): 5.76 million

– Value of Holding (as of September 30): $357.37 million

Moving on, in American International Group Inc (NYSE:AIG) the fund reduced its holding by 40% during the fourth quarter. After declining gradually since the start of 2016, shares of American International Group Inc (NYSE:AIG) have spiked recently – in spite of reporting dismal numbers for the fourth quarter – and are now trading down by 14.47% year-to-date. While analysts anticipated a loss of $0.93 per share for the quarter, it reported a loss of $1.10 per share. However, the company has also prevented a proxy fight against activist investor Carl Icahn, who owns 42.75 million shares of the company, by agreeing to add his nominee Samuel Merksamer to its board of directors in May. In addition, AIG will add activist John Paulson to the board. John Paulson’s Paulson & Co reported ownership of 14.60 million shares of AIG in its 13F filing for the third quarter.

 #1 Ally Financial Inc (NYSE:ALLY)

– Shares Owned by Perry Capital (as of December 31): 22.60 million

– Value of Holding (as of September 30): $421.35 million

Finally, Ally Financial Inc (NYSE:ALLY) emerged as Perry Capital’s top stock pick at the end of the fourth quarter. The slow and gradual decline that Ally Financial Inc (NYSE:ALLY)’s stock started in August last year has continued this year, trading down by nearly 12.5% year-to-date. For the fourth quarter, the company reported adjusted EPS of $0.52, compared to adjusted EPS of $0.40 it delivered a year earlier. According to analysts, the fall of Ally Financial’s stock in the past few months has made it very cheap at current levels. At its current market price, the company is trading at a forward price-to-earnings multiple of only 6.24 and price to book multiple of only 0.60. The fact that 18 of the 19 prominent analysts that cover the stock currently have a ‘Buy’ rating supports the bullish sentiment towards the stock. Emanuel J. Friedman‘s EJF Capital reduced its stake in the company by 73% to 3.38 million shares during the fourth quarter.

Disclosure: None