Martin Whitman’s Third Avenue Management Declared Activist Stake in $FCEA

Martin Whitman’s Third Avenue Management declared on October 4th that the firm  owns a 13.3% activist stake in Forest City Enterprises, Inc. (FCEA). The firm now has 19.97 million Class A common shares in FCEA. According to its 13F filing, in the second quarter, Third Avenue Management was already FCEA’s biggest fund shareholder, with 19.35 million shares. So this was just a small expansion in its position. Third Avenue Management begun the purchase on August 4th. The firm made 35 transactions at around $13 when the stock realized a loss and went down a bit more later. Now FCEA is trading at $11.01.

In the second quarter, Forest City Enterprises Inc. was owned by fourteen hedge funds. As mentioned above, Third Avenue Management had a significantly larger position in the stock than the others. After Third Avenue Management, Murray Stahl’s Horizon Asset Management retained 8.69 million shares at that time, or 5.8% stake. Other hedge funds had smaller positions, including Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies with 631 thousand shares.

Third Avenue Management is managed under Martin Whitman. He is an American investment advisor who once made some critic changes in GAAP. He is founder, Co-Chief Investment Officer, and Portfolio Manager of the Third Avenue Management. Based on the firm’s latest 13F, it had $4.9 billion portfolio value in the second quarter, and mainly invested in Financial, Basic Material, and Technology sector.

Forest City Enterprises Inc. belongs to Property Management industry and Financial sector. According to Yahoo! Finance, the company “engages in the ownership, development, management, and acquisition of commercial and residential real estate properties”. The company has Commercial Group segment, Residential Group segment, and Forest City Land Development Group segment. It was founded in 1920 and is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio.