Citigroup Inc (C) One Of Billionaire Michael Price’s Top Q1 Stock Picks

The fund owned about 90,000 shares of Alleghany Corporation (NYSE:Y), the $6.7 billion market cap property and casualty insurance company, roughly even with what it had owned at the beginning of this year. It is priced right at book value, though when we look at the trailing and forward P/Es (20 and 14 respectively) we don’t get the impression that the stock is particularly cheap. Alleghany Corporation (NYSE:Y) is at least something of a defensive stocks with a beta of 0.6, but there are likely other low-beta stocks which would make for better buys.

The 13F showed MFP with 2.2 million shares of FXCM Inc (NYSE:FXCM), an online brokerage specializing in forex instruments. FXCM Inc (NYSE:FXCM)’s market capitalization is only about $540 million, but on average about 190,000 shares are traded per day and at a current price of about $15 per share that is close to $3 million in daily dollar volume. Revenue was up 21% last quarter compared to the first quarter of 2012, and earnings more than doubled; while the stock price does incorporate some future growth, analysts are bullish and as a result the five-year PEG ratio is 0.4.

FXCM Inc (NYSE:FXCM) could actually be a “growth at a reasonable price” stock then, and it might be worth looking into how sustainable its growth rates are. We’re also somewhat interested in the special situation at Hess- the stock as it is currently priced is not that cheap for its industry, but at least somewhat attractive and the breakup opportunity provides a potential upside. Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) could also be a good value, but we do see banks such as JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo trading at lower multiples on their actual trailing performance and so those names might prove more intriguing even considering their premium to Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) on a book basis.

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