Financial Media Beginning to Give Berkowitz Credit for AIG Investment

[BargainValueHunter]

http://www.thestreet.com/story/10897396/1/aig-becomes-a-value-play.html

 

But in another interview with TheStreet last week of an entirely different tenor, Fairholme Capital's Bruce Berkowitz - the first high-profile fund manager to dive back into AIG shares last year - explained his decision this way: "If you've looked at what the company was doing and earning, and if you looked at the maximum dilution at every point in the process, it did not look like our shareholders would get hurt."

 

On Friday, AIG shares were up 1% at $41.68, moving toward the top of its 52-week trading range in the thirteenth consecutive session above the $40 mark.

 

This is interesting...

 

Earlier this week, UBS analyst Andrew Kligerman issued a "short term buy" rating on the stock, with a $45 price target over the next year.

 

"Our updated [sum-of-the-parts] analysis...yields a fair value range of $38-39 per AIG common share," said Kligerman.

 

Though the analyst still holds a long-term "neutral" rating on the shares, Kligerman said the stock may see a lift from warrants that will soon be issued. His target price is the same strike price for those warrants, which investors will receive as the U.S. Treasury Department exchanges $49.1 billion worth of stock from preferred to common. The government's stake will increase temporarily until the Treasury starts selling off its stake in coming quarters.

 

Kligerman says "overhang from U.S. government's pro-forma 92% common stake may prove less punitive than feared--and AIG shares will ultimately benefit from a larger float."

 ;)

[biaggio]

http://www.bloomberg.com/video/66308380/

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