The Greenlight Capital founder said in his latest investment letter, published January 17, that "we have dramatically increased our GM position."
Here's the logic:
"While the bears have been screaming "peak auto" for the last couple of years, we think a strengthening job market will sustain the current upcycle and lead to better than expected credit performance at GM's finance subsidiary. While the bears also cite long-term concerns over self-driving cars, we see a huge intermediate-term opportunity in assisted-driving cars. In any other industry, investors would be enthused by the developing upgrade cycle, which could last for a number of years as incremental improvements in each model year attract consumers."
"GM's valuation is extreme: at its year-end price of $34.84 per share, GM trades at less than 6x earnings. It is rare for a company to pay out only a quarter of its profits in dividends and still yield 4.4%. GM has substantial foreign operations that (other than China) barely contribute to profits and could improve over time. Finally, we believe that GM can unlock substantial value through modest changes to its capital structure."