John Paulson’s Paulson & Co. was under the weather last year, and although business has somewhat improved in 2012 the fund is still among the laggers. The Paulson Advantage Plus fund was down 18.51 percent as of October 31st. The same fund reported losses of -52 percent in 2011. For this quarter, Paulson has put a hold on his love for gold and gold equities, as the shares remained steady for the third quarter. However his top holdings are still among gold stocks. The most significant change is his increased holding in Life Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:LIFE). Paulson bought 8.53 million more shares of the company, thus making it the fourth largest holding in the $12.7 billion portfolio.
Shares in SPDR Gold Trust (ETF) (NYSE:GLD), NovaGold Resources Inc. (NYSEAMEX:NG), Mylan Inc. (NASDAQ:MYL) were unchanged in the last quarter.
New Buys
Paulson bought a new positions in MetroPCS Communications Inc (NYSE:PCS) with 23.8 million shares, Nexen Inc. (NYSE:NXY) (TSE:NXY) with 6.05 million shares, Robbins & Myers, Inc. (NYSE:RBN) with 1 million shares, AmeriGroup Corp (NYSE: AGP) with 1 million shares, Leap Wireless with 7 million shares and Shire plc ADR with 1.37 million shares.
Prem Watsa’s Farifax Financial Holdings, Taconic Advisors, Farallon Capital, all have bought Nexen Inc. (NYSE:NXY) (TSE:NXY), in the last quarter.
Additions
Paulson increased his holdings in Hillshire Brands Co (NYSE:HSH), Equinix Inc (NASDAQ:EQIX), both holdings were initiated in the second quarter. Paulson also bought more Post Holdings Inc and Gaylord Entertainment.
Reductions
Paulson reduced his stake in two top holdings. AngloGold Ashanti Limited (NYSE:AU) was reduced by 4,358,376 shares and Delphi Automotive PLC (NYSE:DLPH) was reduced by 7,174,581 shares. Paulson also sold 11.8 million shares in Hartford Financial Services Group Inc (NYSE:HIG), two million shares of Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE:COF), 1.15 million shares of Gold Field Ltd and 3.9 million shares of XL Group plc (NYSE:XL).
The fund also sold some shares in Howard Hughes Corp (NYSE:HHC). Another hedge fund manager, Whitney Tilson bought more Howard Hughes Corp (NYSE:HHC) this quarter.
Sells
Another hedge fund manager, Michael Price also sold off Goodrich Corporation (NYSE:GR) in the last quarter.
*Previous version of the article stated that Paulson & Co exited their position in CNO Financial Group Inc (NYSE:CNO). Paulson still holds 22,511,400 shares of the company as per the 13f filing for Q3 2012.
