American International Group Inc (AIG) Among This Value-Focused Hedge Fund’s Favorite Stocks

In Career Education Corp. (NASDAQ:CECO), the fund managed by Michael Kao holds 558,100 shares, the value of the stake being $1.3 million. The company, which represents another new holding for Akanthos, will announce its financial results for the first quarter on May 7th. At the end of last year, Career Education Corp. (NASDAQ:CECO) reported a total revenue of $354.7 million, but the company posted a net loss of $61.5 million, which, however, is lower than the net loss from a year earlier, worth $120.4 million. In full-year 2012, the revenue of Career Education Corp. (NASDAQ:CECO) fell to $1.49 billion, from $1.87 billion one year earlier, and the company had a net loss of $142.8 million, against a net income of $18.6 million in 2011.

Final Thoughts

Even though Akanthos Capital is a smaller sized fund and has a much more focused equity portfolio than other larger funds, due to the diversity of companies from different industries, the fund will be able to cope in case some of these stocks turn sour. At the same time, new positions in Career Education, SanDisk and Priceline each represent intriguing value opportunities moving forward, and retail investors with a similar penchant for value-centric strategies should take notice. Of these five holdings, it looks like American International Group Inc (NYSE:AIG) is the strongest bet, and the size of Kao’s  position in the post-bailout insurer indicates that he’s got a ton of conviction as well.

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Disclosure: none