Einhorn Maintains Gold Bet, Looks for Offshore Drilling Bargain (GDX, GLD, PHYS, ESV, BDX, MSFT, XRX, PFE, RAH)

David Einhorn, the head of Greenlight Capital, has been among the prominent investors making a play on gold.

According to a recent letter to investors, gold was one of the firm’s five largest positions at the end of the second quarter, although, looking at Greenlight’s top-15, U.S.-listed, equity holdings from the end of Q2, the firm was trimming its stake in the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX).

Einhorn also reportedly owns a large store of physical gold, highlighting it as a cheaper and more liquid method of gaining exposure to the metal. Hedge fund superstars John Paulson and George Soros, meanwhile, have been holding massive positions in SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) and commodity investor Eric Sprott created his own publicly listed Sprott Physical Gold Trust ETV (PHYS).

Elsewhere, the firm opened a new stake in offshore drilling contract Ensco (ESV), which, Einhorn pointed out, will not be impacted materially in the long term by the Gulf oil spill. Einhorn also opened a new stake ATM manufacturer, which he described as having “largely sound, strong free cash-flow ATM and retail businesses, poised for solid growth over the coming years from product upgrade cycles.”

He also increased bets on medical instruments maker Becton, Dickinson and Co (BDX), tech blue chips Microsoft (MSFT) and Xerox (XRX), pharmaceutical firm Pfizer (PFE), and food maker Ralcorp Holdings (RAH).

Looking at tickerspy.com’s graph charting the performance of Greenlight’s end-of-Q2 holdings so far this quarter, one can see that the holdings have kept pace with the market. Visit tickerspy.com to see the hedge fund’s top holdings and a chart of their combined performance.

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Tags: BDX, ESV, GDX, GLD, MSFT, PFE, PHYS, RAH, XRX