Thomas Bancroft’s Makaira Partners Is Betting On These Stocks

Liberty Interactive Group (NASDAQ:QVCA) remains Makaira’s second most valuable position for the second straight quarter, and unchanged from the previous quarter at 2.88 million shares. Nor is Makaira the only fund high on Liberty Interactive, which owns a number of properties in the digital commerce industry, including subsidiaries backcountry.com and bodybuilding.com; the company was also one of Park Presidio Capital’s top picks heading into 2015.

Liberty Interactive Group (NASDAQ:QVCA) had a mixed year, finishing up 1.2%, as the company’s structure underwent turbulence, including the spinoff of Liberty Tripadvisor Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LTRPA) in August. It’s been more of the same so far in 2015, with shares up very slightly, and a great deal of turbulence in the stock, which has a beta of 1.7. Liberty Interactive will accounce its fourth quarter, 2014 results on February 25. Analysts are expecting an earnings loss of nearly $1.00 per share for the quarter.

Next is Verisign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN), another stock that remained unchanged in the quarter with 1.36 million shares, and is also a long-time pick of Makaira’s, dating back to early 2013. Verisign is well-known for its infrastructure assurance business which protects websites from DDoS attacks, and provides other security services, in addition to its domain name registry and DNS resolution services.

Verisign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) was and still is a prominent part of Warren Buffett’s portfolio, and shares have risen 160% since the beginning of 2010, though they have failed to come close to the heights achieved during the .com bubble. Most recently, shares rebounded strongly from a downswing at the start of 2014, and are up 9.04% in 2015. Verisign reported revenue of $256 million for the fourth quarter of 2014, a 4.2% increase from the same year-ago period, and repurchased 16.3 million shares, and approved a plan to repurchase an additonal $453 million in shares.

Lastly is Covanta Holding Corp (NYSE:CVA), a holding that dates back to Makaira’s first 13F filing at the end of 2011. Makaira now owns 3.01 million shares after trimming its position slightly during the fourth quarter, by 150,000 shares. Covanta has enjoyed a steady run since the beginning of 2012, gaining 56.68% in that time. However shares have slipped 14.54% since November 28, and were preceded by a large volume of insider sales, perhaps indicating shares had peaked. Martin Whitman‘s Third Avenue Management also trimmed its exposure to the stock, slashing nearly 2.5 million shares.

Covanta Holding Corp (NYSE:CVA) missed earnings expectations during their most recently quarterly results, announced on February 11, with earnings of $0.06 per share. Analysts had estimated earnings for the waste combustion company of $0.14 per share. The earnings miss was due to increased expenses, as revenue did exceed expectations at $435 million for the fourth quarter of 2014.

Disclosure: None