In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Larry Robbins‘ Glenview Capital Management has disclosed acquiring a significant chunk of Flextronics International Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX) shares. Glenview has purchased 5.0 million shares in one transaction, paying $10.17 per share. Following the increase, the fund owns 75.13 million shares, which represent 12.77% of Flextronics.
The stock of the $6.0 billion provider of global supply chain solutions has been growing over the last months, returning 30% since the beginning of the year. Being one of the largest bets of Mr. Robins, Flextronics International Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX) was one of the stocks that helped Glenview to return roughly 18% in the first six months of the year. Mr. Robinson also owns significant positions in Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) and Monsanto Company (NYSE:MON), which are the top two largest holdings in Glenview’s equity portfolio, although they performed worse than Flextronics that is the third-largest. Moreover, the historical records show that Mr. Robbins, who was previously employed at Leon Cooperman‘s Omega Advisors, has excellent stock-picking skills. Glenview returned over 300% between January 2001 and December 2010, and after a downfal during the financial crisis, the fund was back on track retuning 82.7% in 2009.
In fact, Glenview Capital has been a long-term shareholder of Flextronics. The fund first revealed ownership of shares of the company in the 13F filing for the first quarter of 2009, and since then the stock more than trippled in value. Mr. Robbins has been constantly increasing its position, which initially contained some 5.5 million shares. Another long-term shareholder of the company is Thomas E. Claugus‘ GMT Capital, which last declared ownership of around 9.35 million shares. However, GMT has been reducing its exposure to Flextronics International Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX). In addition, Richard S. Pzena‘s Pzena Investment Management upped its position in Flextronics by 30% during the second quarter of the year to some 4.89 million shares.
Moreover, Mr. Robbins has been fond of Flextronics, the company being one of his favorite stocks, as he said during a panel at the latest “Alpha Delivering Conference.” The investor said, among other things that he likes companies that are able to take credits at low interest rates and whose management is commited to returning value to shareholders through steps like buyback programs. From this point, Flextronics International Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX) falls under this category as the company has recently increased its buyback program to 20% of the outstanding shares, and over the last four years it has purchased back from investors over $1.7 billion worth of stock.
Flextronics International Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX) has also been reporting an excellent financial performance with its revenue growing to around $6.6 billion in the second quarter, from $5.79 billion a year ago, while its EPS surged to $0.30 from $0.09 during the same period. This adds one more point to the company and also helps to explain why Mr. Robbins is fond of the company. With the stock still trading lower than many of its peers it has the potential to grow further, which might be the reason why Mr. Robbins bought more shares recently.
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