In a new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Central Square Management, led by Kelly Cardwell, disclosed increasing its stake in UCP Inc (NYSE:UCP). The stake was raised to 409,139 Class A shares from 254,118 shares that the fund held as of the end of the first quarter. The stake represents 5.18% of the company’s outstanding common stock and is passive by nature. UCP Inc (NYSE:UCP) is a homebuilder and land developer, with a market cap of $57.11 million.
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Illinois-based Central Square Management was founded by Kelly Cardwell in 2007. The long/short fund employs a fundamental-based bottom-up process to pick stocks. Before launching Central Square Management, Cardwell worked at Fidelity Investments. In its latest 13F filing, Central Square disclosed a public equity portfolio valued at $96.09 million. In this article, we’ll also take a look at Central Square’s top holdings in terms of value, which are PICO Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PICO), Avid Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:AVID), and Discovery Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:DISCA).
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California-based UCP Inc (NYSE:UCP) is engaged in the design and development of sustainable single-family homes. The company reported very strong financial results for the first quarter of 2015, with total consolidated revenue increasing by 69.9% year-over-year to $43.5 million. It posted a 202.4% increase in new home orders to 254 units. Net loss for the quarter dropped to $1.8 million, versus a loss of $2.5 million in the same quarter last year. Last year, UCP Inc (NYSE:UCP) acquired Citizens Homes Inc., a privately-held homebuilder that operates in select markets in the Southeastern United States. Shares of UCP Inc (NYSE:UCP) have not been performing well despite the growth, declining 46.71% during the past year. Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates is also a big investor of the company, holding 457,500 shares as of March 31.
Lets talk about Central Square’s top holdings, starting with PICO Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PICO). During the first quarter, Central Square upped its stake in the $364.62-million market cap company by 22% to 1.22 million shares, worth $19.73 million. PICO Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PICO)’s core businesses are water resource and water storage operations, real estate operations, agribusiness operations, and corporate. For the first quarter of 2015, PICO Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PICO) reported a net loss of $16.8 million, or $0.73 per share, versus a loss of $13.2 million, $0.58 per share, in the same quarter of 2014. PICO Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PICO)’s stock has lost 31.21% during the past calendar year. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group also boosted its stake in PICO Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PICO) during the first quarter, by 85% to 60,232 shares.
