Artko Capital, an investment management company, recently released its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. In the fourth quarter, an average partnership interest in the fund increased by 6.9% net of fees. However, investments in comparable indexes like Russell 2000, Russell Microcap, and the S&P 500 were up 14.0%, 16.1%, and 11.7% in the fourth quarter. For the full year, the fund was up 1.6% net of fees while comparable market indexes were up 16.9%, 9.3%, and 26.3% respectively. For more information on the fund’s top picks in 2023, please check its top five holdings.
Artko Capital featured stocks like Maui Land & Pineapple Company, Inc. (NYSE:MLP) in the fourth quarter 2023 investor letter. Based in Lahaina, Hawaii, Maui Land & Pineapple Company, Inc. (NYSE:MLP) is a landholding and operating company that develops, manages, and sells residential, resort, commercial, agricultural, and industrial real estate properties. On March 5, 2024, Maui Land & Pineapple Company, Inc. (NYSE:MLP) stock closed at $19.76 per share. One-month return of Maui Land & Pineapple Company, Inc. (NYSE:MLP) was 3.56%, and its shares gained 118.58% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Maui Land & Pineapple Company, Inc. (NYSE:MLP) has a market capitalization of $387.774 million.
Artko Capital stated the following regarding Maui Land & Pineapple Company, Inc. (NYSE:MLP) in its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter:
“We added an initial 6.0% position at below $15.00 a share in the 4th quarter of 2023 as a replacement for our sales of Northern Technologies and Gaia investments. This investment has seen a 35.0% return, mostly in 2024. Maui Land & Pineapple Company, Inc. (NYSE:MLP) is a Master Planned Community developer (‘MPC’) that owns tens of thousands of some of the most spectacular acres on the Hawaiian island of Maui, majority-owned by former AOL CEO Steve Case. MLP is in the process of moving from a business stabilization phase to a land development phase. We believe that even a modest development of this incredibly valuable land could result in an intermediate-term Net Asset Value (‘NAV’) of $60.00 to $80.00 per share, and possibly multiples of those targets in the long term.
For many years, since Steve Case purchased a controlling stake in the almost 200-year-old company in 1999, the company had been undergoing a restructuring phase. The company closed down the cash- draining pineapple operations, funded the pension plan liabilities, stabilized cash flow to break even, and began to hire a new management team. We believe that the company is on the verge of beginning to monetize its incredibly valuable land holdings in conjunction with the Maui government. Over the last year or so, the company changed its registration to Delaware; completely revamped its board of directors with substantial real estate heavy hitters, including professionals with associations to MPC gold standard bearers of Howard Hughes Corp and St Joe, as well as with Hawaiian professional luminaries; added a new CEO, who in the last few weeks had been awarded over 2% of shares outstanding in 10- year stock options. We love incentive structures where the CEO has the opportunity to make tens of millions of dollars. It even changed its 25-year-old website, which up until a few weeks ago looked like Steve Case designed it himself as an AOL landing page. In short, all signs are pointing that the company is on the verge of a substantial positive directional change. Other positives, much like our investment in RSSS, MLP has an existing leasing business whose Net Operating Income (NOI) covers the company administrative expenses, while it begins to develop its real valuable jewels…” (Click here to read the full text)
Aerial view of a large building in the middle of a modern cityscape.
Maui Land & Pineapple Company, Inc. (NYSE:MLP) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. At the end of the fourth quarter, Maui Land & Pineapple Company, Inc. (NYSE:MLP) was held by 4 hedge fund portfolios, up from 3 in the previous quarter, according to our database. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 2023 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
Suggested Articles:
- 15 Highest Paying Jobs with a Psychology Degree
- 20 Countries with Most Cities Over 1 Million
- 20 Highest Quality Perfumes in the World
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
