Delphi, United Technologies, and More: Billionaire Howard Marks’ New Stock Picks

Caesars Entertainment Corp (NASDAQ:CZR) was another new stock with Oaktree owning 2.5 million shares. The casino owner and operator is seeing considerable net losses this year, with the red ink expected to extend to 2013 as well. It is down 56% from its IPO in the beginning of February, and has a very high debt load. The most recent data shows that 17% of the outstanding shares are held short, and we don’t think that the company is a buy- in fact, if the business does not improve it may make a good short against other casino stocks.

Oaktree also bought shares of alternative investment manager Apollo Global Management LLC (NYSE:APO). Apollo Global trades at a discount to the book value of its equity, with a P/B ratio of 0.8. However, many of its investments are of course privately held and it is another heavily indebted company. The trailing P/E is 16, but Wall Street analysts expect the company to do considerably better next year and so the forward P/E is 5. We might consider comparing it to other alternative investors such as Blackstone.

The fund also added $9.9 billion market cap Brazilian electric utility Companhia Energetica Minas Gerais (NYSE:CIG) to its portfolio by buying about 430,000 shares. As might be expected for a utility, Cia Energetica’s dividend yield is fairly high (though it does tend to fluctuate, likely due to foreign exchange rates). As might be expected for a utility in a developing country, it is growing nicely with revenue 19% higher in the third quarter than in the same period in 2011 and net income rising at an even faster rate. The P/E multiples are very low as well. There’s certainly quite a bit of risk related to buying a foreign utility, but Cia Energetica might provide a good mix of value and growth.