Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors disclosed today its equity positions for the third quarter of 2014. According to the Schedule 13F form filed with the SEC, the fund has a highly diversified equity portfolio, worth more than $18.5 billion, with a slight focus on consumer discretionary (27.2%) and industrial (24.6%) stocks. As its top positions remained pretty much the same as in the second quarter, with DIRECTV (NASDAQ:DTV) and American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) leading the top, in this article I will look into its largest new stakes disclosed by GAMCO for the end of the third quarter: Weatherford International Plc (NYSE:WFT), TRW Automotive Holdings Corp. (NYSE:TRW), and Liberty Media Corp (NASDAQ:LMCK).
Weatherford International Plc (NYSE:WFT) came in first. This $ 12.79 billion market cap provider of equipment and services to the oil and natural gas exploration and production industry (both on land and offshore) saw GAMCO acquire more than 10.81 million shares of Common Stock during the third quarter. This position is worth more than $224.8 million, and makes of GAMCO one of the largest institutional shareholders in the company.
Other major institutional investors betting on Weatherford International Plc (NYSE:WFT) are William B. Gray’s Orbis Investment Management and Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management. These funds disclosed, by the end of the second quarter of the year, ownership of 34.38 million shares and 6.25 million shares, respectively .
Second in line is TRW Automotive Holdings Corp. (NYSE:TRW), an $11.23 billion market cap supplier of automotive systems, modules and components to global automotive original equipment manufacturers and related aftermarkets. According to the 13F filing, GAMCO started a position in the company during the third quarter, with 1.14 million shares, worth more than $116.2 million.
Even more bullish on TRW Automotive Holdings Corp. (NYSE:TRW) seems Richard S. Pzena’s Pzena Investment Management, which acknowledged holding more than 3.94 million shares as of the end of the second quarter.
Finally, there’s Liberty Media Corp (NASDAQ:LMCK), a $15.98 billion market cap media, communications and entertainment company that was spun-off from Starz (NASDAQ:STRZA) in 2013. Over the third quarter of the year, GAMCO acquired 1.42 million Class C shares of Liberty Media Corp (NASDAQ:LMCK), worth approximately $67 million.
Liberty Media Corp (NASDAQ:LMCK)’s Class C stock, which started trading in July, has already attracted the attention of several institutional investors, including Stephen J. Errico’s Locust Wood Capital Advisers, which purchased 572,428 shares during the third quarter, and Bernard Selz’s Selz Capital, which owns 126,000 shares.
I should also mention that GAMCO has been very active over the past month. Most recently, GAMCO boosted its stakes in BioScrip Inc (NASDAQ:BIOS), by 13%, to 5.86 million shares, and in Move Inc. (NASDAQ:MOVE), MOCON, Inc. (NASDAQ:MOCO), and Astec Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTE). Moreover, the funds affiliated with Mr. Gabelli (GAMCO, Gabelli Funds, GSI, Teton Advisors, GBL) recently disclosed that they had went activist in, and tripled their exposure to, SWS Group Inc (NYSE:SWS), taking their holdings to 1.7 million shares of Common Stock. On the opposite, they closed out their stakes in Annies Inc (NYSE:BNNY) and Medical Action Industries (NASDAQ:MDCI), and trimmed the one in Layne Christensen Company (NASDAQ:LAYN).
Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any stocks or funds mentioned
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