Canyon Capital Advisors, a fund led by Joshua Friedman and Mitchell Julis, disclosed boosting its position in DHT Holdings Inc (NYSE:DHT) to around 10.20 million shares from 4.96 million shares reported earlier. Following the increase, Canyon’s stake amasses 10.67% of the company. In another filing, Kevin Kotler‘s Broadfin Capital disclosed adding Titan Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTCBB:TTNP) to its equity portfolio. The fund reported holding over 6.37 million shares of the company, the stake being equal to 5.8% of the common stock. Both reported stakes are passive by nature.
Canyon Capital Advisors has initiated a stake in DHT Holdings Inc (NYSE:DHT) in the first quarter of 2014, disclosing ownership of around 1.83 million shares in February. Later on the stake has been upped to 4.96 million shares. Since the fund initiated its stake, the stock of the company dropped by over 27%. However, despite the stock’s significant downfall this year, many investors seem to be bullish on DHT Holdings Inc (NYSE:DHT). Earlier in September, Daniel Gold‘s QVT Financial disclosed raising its position to 6.37 million shares, from 3.91 million shares held previously. Moreover, Stephen Feinberg’s Cerberus Capital Management has boosted its exposure to the company by 75% during the second quarter of 2014, and currently owns around 3.90 million shares, which make the holding the third-largest in Cereberus’ equity portfolio.
The stock of the company dropped amid a significant decrease in the financial performance of the company. DHT Holdings reported a net loss of $0.12 per share for the second quarter of the year, down from a loss of $0.01 in the first quarter, although still significantly up from $0.50 reported for the same quarter last year. DHT Holdings provides transportation services to oil companies and operates a fleet of crude oil tankers. Among the small cap companies from the shipping industry, the stock of DHT is one of the cheapest, and trails a forward P/E of around 15.00. Moreover, analysts are also bullish on DHT Holdings Inc (NYSE:DHT), the stock having a consensus rating ‘Buy’ with the average target price reaching $10.40, which is almost double the current price of the company.
Joshua Friedman and Mitchell Julius seek to earn risk-adjusted returns above the debt and equity market indices. The fund invests in various asset classes such as bank debt or distressed securities, but also manages a $2.5 billion equity portfolio. Canyon’s two largest bets are placed on Time Warner Cable Inc (NYSE:TWC), which returned around 4.5% year-to-date and Ally Financial Inc (NYSE:ALLY), which lost over 20% since the second quarter, when the fund initiated the stake in the company.
Titan Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTCBB:TTNP) is a nano-cap biopharmaceutical company that is engaged in developing therapeutics for the treatment of the central nervous system disorders. With Broadfin being mainly a healthcare-oriented investor, the bet on Titan Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTCBB:TTNP) is particularly interesting. The company has recently announced that it is conducting the patient enrollment for its Phase 3 study of Probuphine, an investigational implant for the maintanance treatment of opioid dependence. The study is expected to be competed by the middle of 2015, following which the company will apply for a new drug application with the FDA.
Even though Broadfin and Canyon Capital Advisors haven’t places big bets on DHT Holdings Inc (NYSE:DHT) and Titan Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTCBB:TTNP), since the companies amass very small positions in their equity portfolios, it is still important for retail investors to track this moves since both funds acquired significant positions in the companies and with the stocks being currently priced relatively low, they can make some good investments.
Disclosure: none
