Jeffrey Tannenbaum and Fir Tree Partners’ Bullish Bet on MGIC Investment Corp $MTG

Jeffrey Tannenbaum founded Fir Tree Partners in 1994. He is a value investor focusing on cash flows, net asset values, and private market values. He sees his stock purchases as buying a piece of a business. He pays attention to downside risks, and invests with a 2-4 year horizon. He also invests in distressed companies and companies that are going through bankruptcies. Fir Tree has more than $2 Billion under management.

MGIC Investment Corp. (NYSE:MTG)

Fir Tree recently disclosed a 5% stake in MGIC Investment Corp (MTG). At the end of December Fir Tree had 4.47 Million shares of MTG in its portfolio. On April 20th Jeffrey Tannenbaum purchased an additional 6 Million shares. On that day the stock closed at $7.45. The next day several insiders of MTG purchased 125 thousand shares of the company at around $7.75 per share. By the end of next trading day MTG was trading at $8.35 again. Tannembaum made around %10 from this opportunistic purchase which was acknowledged by corporate insiders.

There were other hedge funds with large positions in MTG at the end of December. John Griffin’s Blue Ridge, Leon Cooperman’s Omega Advisors, Remy Trafelet’s Trafelet Capital, Peter Adam Hochfelder’s Brahman Capital, and Benjamin Slavet’s Ascend Capital were bullish about MTG. The stock lost nearly 18% so far in 2011.