The latest round of 13F filings, whereby hedge funds and other investment firms with U.S-traded equity holdings totaling at least $100 million are required to disclose those holdings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, is complete. We gather and use this information to power our market-beating small-cap strategy in addition to penning reports on various aspects of overall hedge fund activity. In this article we’ll take a look at four companies which had their IPOs during the first quarter of 2015: Summit Materials Inc (NYSE:SUM), Vista Outdoor Inc (NYSE:VSTO), Box Inc (NYSE:BOX), and Pacific DataVision, Inc. (NASDAQ:PDVW) and judge the early hedge fund sentiment towards these companies.
First, a word about our small-cap strategy. We launched this strategy in August 2012 on the back of 13 years’ worth of research data that showed hedge funds’ top small-cap picks were far more successful on average than the rest of their stock picks. Since the official launch of our strategy we couldn’t be more pleased with the results and the returns it has delivered to subscribers: 144.4% returns over 32 months, more than doubling the returns of both the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) and Russell 2000 ETF (IWM) during that time. We’ve just released our latest quarterly newsletter which includes our top small-cap picks for the next three months.
Let’s move on to the newly-listed companies now, beginning with Summit Materials Inc (NYSE:SUM). Despite having its IPO relatively late in the first quarter (March 12), Summit Materials paced all newly-listed companies with 32 hedge funds in our database opening a position in it through March 31, with the positions valued at $263 million. Tops among them was Richard Barrera’s Roystone Capital Partners, which opened a 1.40 million share position in Summit Materials Inc (NYSE:SUM) valued at $31.07 million. Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and Lee Ainslie’s Maverick Capital are among the other funds to open positions. Shares of Summit Materials Inc (NYSE:SUM), which deals in construction materials in the United States and Western Canada, have gained a healthy 34% since its IPO.
Shares of Vista Outdoor Inc (NYSE:VSTO) are now held by 20 funds in our database, with the total value of their holdings equaling $655 million as of March 31, more than double that of Summit Materials and the second-highest of any newly-listed stock. The consumer goods company, which had its IPO in late January, sells hunting and outdoor sporting equipment. Vista Outdoor Inc (NYSE:VSTO) proved particularly attractive to Jean-Marie Eveillard‘s First Eagle Investment Management, which had snapped up 6.93 million shares by early March, giving it a 10.85% stake in the company. That position was bumped up to 7.30 million shares valued at $312.56 million by the end of March. David Cohen and Harold Levy’s Iridian Asset Management has also opened a large position in Vista Outdoor, whose shares have enjoyed an even healthier rise of 36% since its IPO.
Box Inc (NYSE:BOX) has not enjoyed the same success as its fellow newly-listed companies, with its shares tumbling by 27% since its late January IPO. That’s no doubt disappointing to Philippe Laffont of Coatue Management, who was the first institutional investor to file on the company, disclosing a 1.25 million share position in early February, a 9.99% stake in Box Inc (NYSE:BOX) which he had maintained through the end of March. A darling of the angel investor community, Box Inc has been anything but with Wall Street, which has shown concern over the cloud services company’s lower-than-expected growth in billings, while concerns also persist over pricing pressure Box Inc could face due to a competitive landscape. Other early investors of Box Inc, which had eight funds invested in it as of March 31, include Brookside Capital and OZ Management.
Pacific DataVision, Inc. (NASDAQ:PDVW) also has eight funds with positions in it as of March 31 from among the firms we track. The company, which recently renamed its business pdvWireless and launched its new DispatchPlus service, operates in the workforce mobile solutions segment, connecting employers to their mobile workforce through two-way portable radios that house numerous high-productivity features. Insider Stephen Feinberg of Cerberus Capital Management added to his large position in Pacific DataVision, Inc. (NASDAQ:PDVW) after the stock went public and has since purchased another 500,000 shares in early May to lift his total to over 2.80 million shares. Jeffrey Altman’s Owl Creek Asset Management also holds one of the largest stakes in Pacific DataVision, whose shares have gained 19% since its early February IPO.
Disclosure: None
