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.
The second-largest holding of Central Square is represented by Avid Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:AVID), in which the investor decreased its position by 18% to 1.07 million shares, valued at $15.98 million. Avid Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:AVID) is a $619.34-million market cap provider of audio and video technology for media organizations and professionals. In April, Avid Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:AVID) announced that it entered into an agreement to acquire Orad Hi-Tec Systems Ltd. for approximately $60 million in an all-cash transaction. Israel-based Orad Hi-Tec Systems provides state-of-the-art, 3D real-time graphics, video servers, and related asset management solutions. From a financial standpoint, the company seems to be in a rather unstable position, with its first quarter 2015 revenues decreasing to $119.6 million, versus $135 million in the first quarter of 2014. The company posted a net loss of $169,000 for the first quarter, compared to net income of $8.9 million in the same year-ago period. Nonetheless, shares of Avid Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:AVID) have gained over 110% during the past year. Another investor we track, Richard Blum’s Blum Capital Partners, held 7.13 million shares of Avid Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:AVID) as of March 31.
Lastly is Discovery Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:DISCA), a $13.4 billion market cap media company, with nearly 3 billion subscribers in more than 220 countries and territories. As of March 31, Central Square held 354,648 shares of the company, representing a 9% increase to its position compared to the previous reporting period, the stake being valued at $10.9 million. Discovery Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:DISCA) reported first-quarter 2015 net income of $250 million, up 9% from the same quarter a year ago. Revenues increased by 9% as well, to $1.54 billion. The performance of Discovery Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:DISCA)’s stock has been rather dismal however, losing 58.18% during the past year. Among the largest shareholders of Discovery Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:DISCA) is Boykin Curry’s Eagle Capital Management, which holds 4.59 million shares as of March 31.
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