Every quarter, any fund managers overseeing more than $100 million must publicly disclose their quarter-end holdings in the Securities and Exchange Commission's Form 13-F. It lists all U.S.-traded securities the fund's manager held at the end of the quarter. Although the form doesn't disclose short positions or intraquarter trades, it can illuminate long stock bets.

Today, we're going to look at the 13-F data from Eddie Lampert, who, in addition to his role as chairman of retailer Sears Holdings, runs ESL Investments and RBS Partners, both hedge funds. According to the famous BusinessWeek profile of Lampert from 2004, he has a big appetite for risk when it comes to investing, and he favors companies that are suffering from poor management and strategies. The total market value of Lampert's disclosed equity holdings as of March 31 -- the latest quarter for which data is available -- was $10.7 billion across 10 holdings.

The fund's 10 largest positions (by value) and associated share-count changes as of March 31 were:

  1. Sears Holdings (Nasdaq: SHLD) -- no change
  2. AutoZone (NYSE: AZO) -- reduced 5.8%
  3. AutoNation (NYSE: AN) -- no change
  4. Gap (NYSE: GPS) -- increased 853.9%
  5. Capital One Financial (NYSE: COF) -- reduced 0.3%
  6. CIT Group (NYSE: CIT) -- increased 16.4%
  7. Genworth Financial (NYSE: GNW) -- no change
  8. Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO) -- increased 16.4%
  9. Seagate Technology (Nasdaq: STX) -- increased 106.7%
  10. Big Lots (NYSE: BIG) -- new

During the quarter, Lampert also sold out of his position in H&R Block.

Lampert's investments are highly concentrated in Sears Holdings, which makes up almost 38% of the portfolio. As a result, Lampert has more than 90% overall exposure to the consumer-services sector. The balance comes from the financial and technology sectors. Here's where he's winning and losing, and making new bets, at the moment:

  • Current winner: New holding Big Lots was the big winner in Q1, increasing more than 42%.
  • Current loser: Cisco fell 15% in the first quarter of 2011. It accounts for around 1.2% of the entire portfolio.
  • New bets: There's only one new bet -- Big Lots, another retailer -- contributing 0.5% to the total portfolio.

So there you have it -- the quick glance at the first-quarter moves in Eddie Lampert's hedge funds. Tell us what you think in the comments section below.