Eddie Lampert's Troubles: It's Not Just Sears

Yesterday, we highlighted the miserable performance of Sears Holdings (SHLD) over the last several weeks.  Since SHLD is most often associated with Eddie Lampert, we looked to see how the rest of the stocks in his portfolio have been doing.  Lampert's hedge fund is called RBS Partners, and based on its holdings at the end of the third quarter, the fund will have a long way to go before it ever hits its high water mark if it has one.  At the end of the quarter, the market value of RBS's equity holdings was over $11 billion. With the quarter just over half over, the market value of those holdings is now down by 54% to $5.3 billion.

 

Below we show the fund's holdings as of the end of the third quarter and their changes so far during the fourth quarter.  While SHLD gets the most attention, it hasn't been the worst performer.  As shown, Hartford Insurance (HIG), Fannie Mae (FNM), Citigroup (C), and CIT Group (CIT) have all lost 70% of their value this quarter.  Getting back to SHLD, though, while it is the stock most often associated with Lampert, if there was no change in his fund's holdings since the end of Q3, it would no longer be his largest holding.  While SHLD made up 53% of the fund on 9/30, given its 68% decline so far in the fourth quarter, today the stock would only have a weight of 37.4% in the portfolio.  Based on current prices, Autozone (AZO) would now be the fund's largest holding.  That stock has seen its weighting increase from 24.4% to 38.4% just because it has only gone down by 28%.