May 28 (Bloomberg) -- Stephen Mandel, who runs the hedge fund Lone Pine Capital LLC, told investors at a conference in New York yesterday to buy shares of for-profit college Strayer Education Inc. Ten minutes later, Kynikos Associates LP’s Jim Chanos advised shorting the industry.

Mandel, 53, and Chanos, 51, were among 11 speakers at the Ira W. Sohn Investment Research Conference. Other investors, like William Ackman of Pershing Square Capital Management LP and Highside Capital Management LP’s Lee Hobson, touted shares of General Growth Properties Inc. and Millicom International Cellular SA.

Mandel, who used to help pick stocks for Julian Robertson’s Tiger Management LLC, predicted Arlington, Virginia-based Strayer will expand beyond the U.S. East Coast, becoming a nationwide system of 300 campuses. The investor is ranked as the 227th-richest American by Forbes magazine.

“Strayer will be a far larger business 10 years from now,” said Mandel, whose hedge fund is located in Greenwich, Connecticut. “There’s a huge underserved demand for working adult postsecondary education.”

Chanos said for-profit colleges spend too much money on advertising and their government funding will soon be cut as the Education Department tries to promote community colleges.

Twenty-six percent of Strayer’s first-quarter costs were from “selling and promotion,” according to its latest quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The $19.9 million that it spent on marketing compares with $39.1 million for “instruction and educational support.”

Cynic in Greek

Strayer shares have fallen 25 percent since Nov. 28. In trading today, the stock slid for a fourth session, losing 1.4 percent to $179.44 at 4:15 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading.

Chanos, the founder of New York-based Kynikos, which means cynic in Greek, said he’s betting against Lincare Holdings Inc. on expectations profit margins will weaken at the Clearwater, Florida-based seller of oxygen tanks and ventilators. Lincare shares have fallen 37 percent since Sept. 8. The shares dropped 2.9 percent to $21.94 today.

In a short sale, traders sell borrowed stock wagering they will be able to repurchase it later at a lower price and pocket the difference.

Kynikos, which oversees $6 billion, returned about 60 percent last year shorting financials, industrials and infrastructure-related companies, when the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index tumbled 38 percent in the biggest annual decline since 1937.

‘Huge Potential’

Ackman, whose New York-based hedge fund owns about 25 percent of General Growth, said shares of the mall owner will rebound even after it filed the biggest real-estate bankruptcy in U.S. history. General Growth’s business is “doing just fine” and the stock has “huge potential reward and generally limited risk,” Ackman said.

Shares of the Chicago-based company have plunged 96 percent since the beginning of last year. They jumped 37 percent, the most in a month, to $1.80 today.

Hobson, who runs Highside Capital in Dallas, advised buying shares of Millicom on speculation the Luxembourg-based mobile- phone operator will expand in emerging markets. He also said he’s shorting shares of Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Inc. because the world’s biggest auctioneer of industrial equipment faces falling merchandise prices and profit growth expectations that are too high.

Millicom shares, which have rallied 36 percent in 2009, climbed 6.8 percent to $61.03 today. Ritchie Bros., up 7 percent this year, tumbled 10 percent to $22.91 for the biggest drop since February.

Mark Kingdon, who runs New York-based Kingdon Capital Management LLC, told investors to buy shares of Bank of America Corp. because the largest U.S. bank has “substantial” earnings power.

“The odds of an extreme, catastrophic outcome appears to have diminished,” Kingdon said. The lender, located in Charlotte, North Carolina, has plunged 79 percent since reaching a record in November 2006. Bank of America added 3.6 percent to $11.30 today.

To contact the reporter on this story: Lynn Thomasson in New York at lthomasson@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: May 28, 2009 17:28 EDT