Paulson Takes Huge Stake In Citigoup, Dumps Goldman

John Paulson is rather notorious, and wealthy, for how much he picked up by shorting financial stocks on the way down.  But the financial world found out in August that Paulson & Co. had bought up many key financial and banking stocks.  Paulson & Co. Inc. is out with a 13-F filing after the close showing he is still in many key financial stocks.

The famed hedge fund manager took a massive stake in Citigroup and sold his entire interest in Goldman Sachs

• Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) was listed as 159,794,229 shares, down from 167,990,464 shares.
• Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF) was static as a stake of 17,000,000 shares of common stock.
• Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) is listed as 300,000,000 (three-hundred million) of common stock.
• Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB) was static as a 5,000,000 share stake.
• First Horizon National Corp. (NYSE: FHN) was 7.11 million, up from a stake of 3,000,000 shares in August.
• JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) was down to 2,000,000 shares, down from an August stake of 7,000,000 shares of common stock.
• Marshall & Ilsley Corp. (NYSE: MI) was static at 12,000,000 shares of common stock.
• People’s United Financial Inc. (NASDAQ: PBCT) was static at 2,750,000 shares of common stock.
• Regions Financial Corp. (NYSE: RF) was static at 35,000,000 shares of common stock.
• SunTrust Bank Inc. (NYSE: STI) was static at 1,500,000 shares of common stock.

We had also noted back in October how Conseco, Inc. (NYSE: CNO) had scored a Paulson investment.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) was NOT in the new filing compared to the August filing where he listed 2,000,000 shares of common stock in the August filing.  State Street Corp. (NYSE: STT) was NOT in the filing versus a stake of 700,000 shares of common stock in August.

JON C. OGG