Edward Lampert’s Favorite Stock Picks

Edward Lampert founded ESL Investments in 1988 with $28 million as assets. Prior to launching his own hedge fund, he worked as an analyst at Goldman Sachs. In 2010, he was among the highest paid hedge fund managers. Eddie Lampert ranked 10th as he increased his wealth by $0.6 billion during 2010.

Often, Lampert is compared with the investment guru Warren Buffett for his concentrated value-oriented investment philosophy. He aims to buy assets for less than what they are worth. Like Buffett, he makes concentrated bets and holds them for long periods of time. More than 75% of ESL Investments’ 13F portfolio is made up of companies belonging to the services sector. The remaining minor portion is made up of companies belonging to the financial and the technology sectors.

During the second quarter of 2011, Lampert reduced his Autozone Inc (AZO) position by 11%, Capital One Financial (COF) by 15% and Seagate Technology (STX) by 9%. Since the end of June, Capital One Financial (COF) lost 15% and Seagate Technology lost 31%, however, Autozone Inc (AZO) returned 3%. Here are Eddie Lampert’s stock picks at the end of June.