What Do Hedge Funds Have To Say About These 3 Purchases?

According to a freshly-submitted Form 4 filing, Clint Carlson’s Carlson Capital recently acquired an 87,935-share block in Ultratech Inc. (NASDAQ:UTEK) at a weighted average price of $15.66. Consequently, Carlson Capital currently holds an ownership stake in the manufacturer of photolithography and laser processing equipment amounting to 3.45 million shares. Last week, the Dallas-based investment firm acquired an additional 33,028 shares at prices ranging from $14.94-to-$14.99, so the firm has been gradually piling up more shares of the seemingly struggling company. Ultratech Inc. (NASDAQ:UTEK)’s stock has lost 13% since the beginning of the year and appears to be in a bottoming-out phase at the moment. Just recently, the company reported a third quarter GAAP net loss of $6.1 million on net sales of $33.1 million, compared to a net loss of $6.6 million on net sales of $33.8 million reported a year ago, so the company doesn’t appear to be improving its operational efficiency or enhancing sales.

11 hedge funds had the stock in their portfolios at the end of the second quarter, compared to 13 registered in the prior one. These hedge fund firms accumulated slightly over 22% of the company’s outstanding shares on June 30, with the value of their combined investment increasing to $113.12 million from $94.52 million quarter-over-quarter. Aside from Carlson Capital, Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management was also bullish on Ultratech Inc. (NASDAQ:UTEK) at the end of the second quarter, owning nearly 704,000 shares.

A separate Form 4 filing with the SEC disclosed that Barry Rosenstein’s JANA Partners currently owns slightly more than 13.75 million shares in Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA). The filing revealed that Rosenstein, who also serves as a Director of the pharmacy-led health and well-being company, received 2,243 shares as compensation under the company’s 2013 Omnibus Incentive Plan. On October 27, Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) and Rite Aid Corporation (NYSE:RAD) announced a merger deal under which the former is set to acquire the shares of U.S retail pharmacy chain Rite Aid for $9.00 per share. The all-cash deal will most likely result in a drugstore giant with 12,600 U.S retail locations. In the meantime, the shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance have advanced by 15% since the start of the year, and seem to be fairly valued if looking at its trailing P/E ratio of 21.89. However, this measure does not take into account the future growth of the company, including the potential growth boost from the aforementioned deal.

The stock became quite popular among the hedge funds tracked by our team during the second quarter, as the number of top money managers invested in the company increased to 81 from 69. Similarly, the value of their stakes increased to $9.13 billion from $7.48 billion quarter-over-quarter. Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global was the top equity holder of Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) within our database at the end of the June quarter, holding 24.63 million shares.

Disclosure: None