Billionaire Dan Loeb’s Small Cap Stock Picks Include Herbalife Ltd. (HLF)

According to the filing, Loeb and his team bought 3 million shares of lumber products company Louisiana-Pacific Corporation (NYSE:LPX) after not having owned any shares at the end of September. Building products have quite a bit of upside if housing activity increases, and the stock has more than doubled in the last year. In the fourth quarter of 2012 revenue rose 47% versus a year earlier, though the current valuation already assumes significant improvements in earnings in the medium term. Impala Asset Management was another major shareholder of Louisiana Pacific according to that fund’s 13F.

Third Point owned 2.1 million shares of Foster Wheeler AG (NASDAQ:FWLT), an engineering and construction company serving energy companies and utilities. In its most recent quarterly report revenue was down 35% compared to the fourth quarter of 2011, with net income down to an even greater extent. The sell-side does expect Foster Wheeler to recover, with consensus implying a forward P/E of 11 and a five-year PEG ratio of 0.8, but we are skeptical. Billionaire Steve Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors increased its stake in Foster Wheeler by 28% in Q4 to 3.8 million shares (check out more stocks SAC owns).

Disclosure: I own no shares of any stocks mentioned in this article.