Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group Raises Stake in $AMCC

Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group raised its passive stake in Applied Micro Circuits Corp (AMCC) to 5.2%, according to a SEC 13G filing on November 21st. Citadel Investment Group now has nearly 3.18 million shares in AMCC, up by more than 13 times from its 224 thousand shares position at the end of September. Previously Citadel Investment Group had already doubled its position after it reported 123 thousand shares in the second quarter. AMCC has lost 31% year to date. The stock is now trading at $7.30, recovering from its 2-year low. It’s possible that Ken Griffin made most of his purchases at below $6 per share in October.

Several other hedge funds were also bullish about AMCC in the second quarter. Stuart Peterson’s Artis Capital Management had the most at that time, with 3.39 million shares. Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management boosted its position by 158% and had 2.20 million shares in the stock.

Ken Griffin is the founder and CEO of Citadel Investment Group. The firm is based in Chicago, and ranks among the largest and most successful hedge funds in the world. He avoided extensive press coverage in manners similar to other hedge funds for several years. Ken Griffin has a personal net worth of $2.3 billion as of 2011, making him the 512th richest man in the world. Citadel Investment Group had a portfolio value of nearly $43 billion in the second quarter.

Applied Micro Circuits Corporation is a semiconductor solutions provider for the enterprise, telecom and consumer/small medium business (SMB). The company engages in the design, development, marketing and support of the high-performance low power integrated circuits (ICs). The company also offers IC products for wire line and wireless communications equipment in the telecom and enterprise markets. In addition, the company combines software and system-level expertise with integrated semiconductors to deliver reference designs and stand-alone semiconductor solutions. The company was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.