Some Bullish Picks from Robin Hood Investors Conference

Usually, conferences, where some of the best investors voice their opinion about the markets, economy and even present some of their best stock picks, represent a great source of insights, especially for retail investors. From one point, these investors don’t give any direct tips, but from the other, if David Einhorn, or Carl Icahn say they like a particular company, why shouldn’t you? This is why we try to cover as many such events as possible and have done so over the last years.

Today is the second day of the Robin Hood Investors Conference in New York. This is a grand event hosted by the Robin Hood Foundation with the proceeds (a ticket costed $7,500) going to help underpriveleged New Yorkers. This year the conference hosts a many interesting speakers such as David Einhorn, Jim Chanos, Anna Nikolayevsky, and others.

We have compiled a list of some of the best ideas that have been presented at the conference during the last couple of days. Even though the presentation was closed to media, many sources covered some parts of the event based on the words of people attending the conference. Among the stocks that have been presented among the best ideas of investors are Sunedison Inc (NYSE:SUNE), American Airlines Group Inc (NASDAQ:AAL), and EZCORP Inc (NASDAQ:EZPW).

David Einhorn Likes Solar Stocks

David Einhorn, who runs $10 billion fund Greenlight Capital, thinks that renewable energy is the next big thing, which is why he recommends investors to purchase shares of renewable power companies, according to Bloomberg citing people at the conference. Einhorn mentioned two stocks from the industry: TerraForm Power Inc (NASDAQ:TERP) and Sunedison Inc (NYSE:SUNE).

The president of Greenlight added that Sunedison Inc (NYSE:SUNE)’s stock could reach as much as $32. Greenlight is a shareholder of SunEdison and during the second quarter the fund boosted its position by 80% to over 21.3 million shares. Both SunEdison and TerraForm gained ground yesterday, amid Einhorn’s speech at the conference, with SunEdison still climbing today, currently trading over 5% in green. You can download a copy of Greenlight’s SunEdison presentation below:

Greenlight Capital SunEdison Presentation

Aside from Greenlight, another investor that owns shares of Sunedison Inc (NYSE:SUNE), among others, is Barry Rosenstein’s JANA Partners, which holds over 10.4 million shares as of the end of June, up by 170% on the quarter.

In addition, Einhorn was intereviewed by CNBC during the conference. The investor said that he is still optimistic about his two largest holdings: Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU). About Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Einhorn said that it is a company that has been doing great on the financial side, increasing its revenues by adding more customers to its ecosystem, while the others keep switching to new devices. Moreover, he considers that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is moving in the right direction with its buyback plan.

However, Greenlight also owns some important short positions, one of which is athenahealth, Inc (NASDAQ:ATHN). The negative bet was known since May, when Einhorn mentioned it during the Ira Sohn conference. athenahealth, Inc (NASDAQ:ATHN)h’s shares started the year with a big climb, followed by a significant decline and currently are trading down by 15% year-to-date. Einhorn said that he is still short Athenahealth and still thinks that the stock can lose around 80% of its value because the company “doesn’t earn any money.” He likes athenahealth, Inc (NASDAQ:ATHN)’s business, but he thinks that the stock trading at 100 times earnings is overvalued.

Jim Chanos Thinks Petroleo Brasileiro Petrobras SA (ADR) (NYSE:PBR) is a Scheme

Kynikos Associates‘ manager, Jim Chanos, was also a speaker at the Robin Hood Conference. During the conference, Chanos spoke with Bloomberg TV‘s Stephanie Ruhle and said that Petroleo Brasileiro Petrobras SA (ADR) (NYSE:PBR) is very connected to Dilma Rousseff, the current president of Brazil, who was the chairman of the company. There have been many scandals and investigations involving the connection between Rousseff and Petroleo Brasileiro Petrobras SA (ADR) (NYSE:PBR), and currently everything regarding Petrobras’ stock depends on the outcome of Brazil’s elections. However, Chanos still thinks that there is a lot of corruption at the government-controlled company.

“[…] The economics are just so poor at Petrobras that we would call it a scheme not a stock,” Chanos said.

Moreover, the investor thinks that even if Rouseff does not win the elections, the  new president still won’t be able to sort all the problems that Petroleo Brasileiro Petrobras SA (ADR) (NYSE:PBR) has sunk in. The company has taken a lot of debt, and has been spending a lot of money, but its cash flow has not been growing.

Stanley Druckenmiller‘s Duquesne Capital added Petroleo Brasileiro Petrobras SA (ADR) (NYSE:PBR) to its equity portfolio during the second quarter and owns around 1.7 million shares as of the end of June.

Tom Wagner Bullish on American Airlines Group Inc (NASDAQ:AAL)

The manager of Knighthead Capital, Tom Wagner, said that the company is cheap and “will still continue to make money.” In general, Wagner considers that the whole industry will be profitable, because there will always be demand for air transportations and there is a low possibility that fewer people will fly because of threat from Ebola. The investor likes American Airlines Group Inc (NASDAQ:AAL) over other airlines because the company has just exited bankruptcy less than a year ago, and the market has not still fully-discovered the company and does not reflect the full value of the company.

Wagner also considers that American Airlines Group Inc (NASDAQ:AAL) will continue to increase its earnings. Moreover, while the fuel price is growing, American Airlines has a very low average fuel cost per mile flown.

In the meantime, the stock of American Airlines Group Inc (NASDAQ:AAL) surged by over 6% on the back of Wagner’s pitch. The company represents the largest holding in Knighthead Capital’s equity portfolio, the fund holding more than 5 million shares as of the end of the second quarter. James Dinan‘s York Capital Management is also one of the shareholders of American Airlines, with around 18.4 million shares as of the end of the second quarter.

Anna Nikolayevsky Recommends EZCORP Inc (NASDAQ:EZPW)

EZCORP Inc (NASDAQ:EZPW) was recommended as a good long investment by Anna Nikolayevsky, the founder and Chief Investment Officer of Axel Capital Management. The stock surged around 8% on Monday on the back of Nikolayevsky’s pitch.

EZCORP Inc (NASDAQ:EZPW) is a small cap provider of financial solutions such as pawn and payday loans. However, even though Nikolayevsky has recommended the stock, Axel Capital Management is not among the shareholders of the company, according to the previous round of 13F filings. Maybe in its new filing, the fund will disclose a position initiated during the third quarter. In the meantime, one of the largest shareholders of EZCORP is Joe Huber’s Huber Capital Management, which owns some 3.6 million shares as of the end of June, followed by Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates with 2.12 million shares. Both Huber and Royce upped their positions by 22% and 68% on the quarter respectively.