Eddie Lampert, the famous hedge fund manager, who took over Sears and Kmart and has seen his investment plummet, remains a frequent flyer buyer of AutoNation. Lampert’s ESL investments was been buying shares of AutoNation almost every day in May (16 different days) and has been buying throughout 2008.  He now owns over 52 million shares, or almost 30% of the company.

In addition, Lampert bought Homebuilder and Mortgage Lender stocks in Q1. He bought KB Home and Centex in  and now owns about $10 million of each; he also owns $35 million of CIT Group, $25 million of PHH and $590 million of Home Depot.  He also owns 23 million shares of AutoZone (AZO).  His investments in the homebuilding and mortgage lender stocks, as well as Home Depot (HD), suggest he believes, in my opinion, that the housing sector will begin to show signs of life by the end of 2008.   If he bought the shares in March (and you can’t tell when he bought the shares unless he went over the 10% threshold), then he is already down 24-34% on the homebuilders (KB and Centex).

Track Lampert (ESL) picks at:

http://www.trackthepros.com/categories.php?category_id=39