Paulson, Esteemed Bank Short Seller, Now Long Financials (BAC, COF, GS, JPM, FITB, FHN, MI, PBCT, SKF, RF, STT, STI)

John Paulson has been well known as a hedge fund manager because of the profits he made from short selling many of the key financial stocks.  Yet his new filing shows a large long position as of the quarter-end June 30, 2009. For example, it lists a huge stake in Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC).  There were many smaller company stakes, but some of the medium-sized stakes (for Paulson that is) are in Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF), Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS), and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM).  Below are the rest of his financial holdings:

• Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) was listed as some $2.217474 billion stake via 167,990,464 shares.
• Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF) was listed as $371.960 million via a stake of 17,000,000 shares of common stock.
• Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB) was listed as $35.5 million via a 5,000,000 share stake.
• First Horizon National Corp. (NYSE: FHN) was listed as $36 million via stake of 3,000,000 shares of common stock.
• Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) was listed as $294.88 million via a stake of some 2,000,000 shares of common stock.
• JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) was listed as $238.77 million via a stake of 7,000,000 shares of common stock.
• Marshall & Ilsley Corp. (NYSE: MI) was listed as $57.6 million via a stake of 12,000,000 shares of common stock.
• People’s United Financial Inc. (NASDAQ: PBCT) was listed as $41.443 million via stake of 2,750,000 shares of common stock.
• Ultrashort Financial ProShars (NYSE: SKF) was listed as $83.58 million via some 2,000,000 shares.
• Regions Financial Corp. (NYSE: RF) was listed as $141.4 million via a stake of 35,000,000 shares of common stock.
• State Street Corp. (NYSE: STT) was listed as $33.04 million via a stake of 700,000 shares of common stock.
• Suntrust Bank Inc. (NYSE: STI) was listed as $24.675 million via a stake of 1,500,000 shares of common stock.

The FULL SEC FILING is here, and there are many non-financial stocks in there.

JON C. OGG
AUGUST 12, 2009