Rosenstein raised his stake in Hertz Global Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:HTZ) by 217% in the fourth quarter. The additions raised his fund’s total to 34.82 million shares valued at $868.42 million, which comprised of 8.12% of its portfolio value.
Shares of Hertz Global have been under pressure recently due to accounting issues and are down nearly 5.2% year-to-date. Rosenstein has however claimed that the car rental company could buy back as much as 20% of its shares to boost its stock price. Carl Icahn also has a significant stake in the company. He owns about 51.92 million shares valued at nearly $1.29 billion, according to the latest filing. He purchased 23.84 million shares of Hertz during the last quarter. Larry Robbins‘ Glenview Capital is another significant stake holder of the company, possessing 18.53 million shares valued at $462.26 million.
PetSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PETM) and Rosenstein have had quite a relationship during the last year. In a letter sent to the management of the provider of pet products and services, he advised them against leveraged recapitalization of the company. This was followed by JANA announcing they would nominate five candidates to be elected to PetSmart’s board of directors, who were later withdrawn when PetSmart agreed to be acquired by a group led by BC Partners for $83.00 per share.
After a 96% increase in Petsmart’s stake in the third quarter, JANA retained its holding at the same level during the fourth. As of the latest filing the stake stands at 9.69 million shares with a market value of $788.07 million. The position comprises 7.36% of JANA’s portfolio value.
eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY)’s position received a major bump in the third quarter when Rosenstein increased his stake in the company by 1,206%. In the fourth quarter, the fund added another 387,710 shares to the position, which now comprises of 7.05% of JANA’s portfolio value, with 13.45 million shares valued at $754.86 million.
The e-commerce company finally decided to split off its online payment division, PayPal in late September last year, something which Icahn had been advocating since March last year, but which was fought off by eBay’s CEO John Donahoe at the time. Icahn, who is also a significant shareholder of eBay possessing nearly 46.27 million shares valued at $2.60 billion and representing 8.14% of his fund’s portfolio value, claimed that Donahoe wasted nearly $5 billion of shareholder’s money fighting him off on PayPal’s split. eBay’s stock has been up nearly 9.6% since the news of the spinoff reached the markets.
Ashland Inc (NYSE:ASH)’s position received a slight slashing during the fourth quarter as Rosenstein offloaded some 19,867 shares. The chemical company providing products, services and solutions to industries, now forms 6.55% of the fund’s portfolio value, up from 3.83% in the quarter, despite a marginal decrease in its shares. The reason being Rosenstein’s strategy to limit exposure to U.S securities which has led to dwindling market value of the fund’s invested portfolio.
Ashland is up nearly 5.8% since the beginning of this year. Although the company’s EPS for the first quarter earnings report beat estimates by $0.05 and stood at $1.46, the revenues missed by $50 million and amounted to $1.39 billion.
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