13D Filing: Elkhorn Partners and Equitable Financial Corp. (EQFN)

Elkhorn Partners Limited Partnership (the “Partnership”) makes this filing to amend certain information previously reported by the Partnership.  This filing constitutes Amendment No. 1 to the Schedule 13D of the Partnership.  The Partnership amends such prior Schedule 13D reports with respect to the common stock of Equitable Financial Corp. (“Equitable”) by adding the following information to the items indicated.

ITEM 4.  PURPOSE OF THE TRANSACTION.

The Partnership intends to nominate Wayne Cadwallader to the board of directors of Equitable, pursuant to the procedures set forth in the Equitable bylaws, for election at the next annual meeting of stockholders expected to be held on November 27, 2018.  Mr. Cadwallader is the Managing Partner – Research of the Partnership.  The Partnership believes that a board of directors should be comprised of members who bring different strengths, skills and experiences to the boardroom and that this type of diversity helps to assess risks, identify opportunities and promote healthy debate.

Mr. Cadwallader, age 61, has 17 years of investment industry experience, including experience with public companies, mergers and acquisitions, capital markets and investment analysis.  The Partnership believes that the current board of directors of Equitable lacks certain of these skills and that the addition of Mr. Cadwallader to the board will assist Equitable in its capital allocation decisions in areas such as stock repurchases and dividends, will improve Equitable’s communications with stockholders and the investment community and will help guide operating improvements, business recovery planning and work flow analysis.  Mr. Cadwallader is currently a member of the board of directors of Comarco, Inc. and Orbit International Corp., both of which are also portfolio holdings of the Partnership.  Ultimately, the Partnership intends to nominate Mr. Cadwallader to the board of directors of Equitable for the purpose of enhancing stockholder value.

The Partnership intends to further amend this Schedule 13D at the time it nominates Mr. Cadwallader to the board of directors of Equitable, within the requirements of Equitable’s nominating procedures.  Any such amendment to this Schedule 13D will include additional information with respect to Mr. Cadwallader.

ITEM 5.  INTEREST IN SECURITIES OF THE ISSUER.

(a)(b)  As of February 22, 2018, the Partnership owns 313,000 shares of Equitable common stock.  The Equitable Form 10-Q for the quarter ended December 31, 2017 reported that there were outstanding 3,359,845 shares of Equitable common stock as of February 14, 2018.  Based on this number, the Partnership owns approximately 9.3% of the Equitable common stock.

(c)  During the past 60 days, the Partnership purchased 5,100 shares of Equitable common stock, in open market transactions, at prices ranging from $10.31 to $10.76 per share.