Trigran Investments, led by Douglas T. Granat, has filed its latest Form 13F with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for the reporting period of the end of the first quarter. Illinois-based Trigran Investments was founded in 1992 by Granat and the hedge fund currently manages $200 million in assets under management. The employee-owned hedge fund favors fundamental analysis supported by in-house research when making investments in the U.S. equity markets. Trigran Investments disclosed an equity portfolio comprised of 44 positions valued at around $327.4 million, with the portfolio consisting primarily of technology stocks. The top long-term holdings of the fund are represented by KMG Chemicals Inc. (NYSE:KMG), NVE Corp (NASDAQ:NVEC), DTS Inc. (NASDAQ:DTSI), and Mercury Systems Inc (NASDAQ:MRCY).
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On the top position is KMG Chemicals Inc. (NYSE:KMG), in which Trigran Investments trimmed its stake to 1.38 million shares from 1.43 million shares held previously. The stake is valued at just under $37.0 million. Trigran Investments has been holding a stake in KMG Chemicals Inc. (NYSE:KMG) since the first quarter of 2011 with ownership of 15,337 shares at that time. KMG Chemicals Inc. (NYSE:KMG) is a $348.8 million market cap provider of specialty chemicals in select markets. The company reported adjusted diluted earnings per share of $0.30 for the second quarter of fiscal 2015, versus $0.12 per share in the prior year’s second quarter. Its consolidated net sales were $79.8 million, representing a 5% decrease from last year’s second quarter. However, KMG Chemicals Inc. (NYSE:KMG) stock has been performing well, soaring 90.54% during the past year and by more than 40% since January alone. Aside from Trigran Investments, Peter Schliemann’s Rutabaga Capital Management is also a large shareholder of the company, owning 337,747 shares as of the end of 2014.
The second largest holding is represented by NVE Corp (NASDAQ:NVEC), in which Trigran Investments started a position about eight years ago, owning 166,100 shares at the end of the third quarter of 2007. The latest 13F filing showed that Trigran Investments increased its stake in NVE Corp (NASDAQ:NVEC) by roughly 15% from the previous quarter to 525,828 shares worth $36.24 million. For the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015, NVE Corp (NASDAQ:NVEC) reported an increase in net income of 43% to $3.66 million, or $0.75 per diluted share, versus $2.56 million, or $0.53 per diluted share for the prior-year quarter. The company posted a 27% increase in total revenue for the quarter to $7.57 million versus $5.98 million year-over-year. For fiscal 2015, the company’s net income increased by 29% to $14.4 million, or $2.95 per diluted share, compared to $11.1 million, or $2.29 per diluted share, for fiscal 2014. Another investor in Trigran Investments is Bandera Partners, led by Gregory Bylinsky and Jefferson Gramm, which held 63,073 shares at the end of 2014.
