Woodson Capital Management is a New York-based hedge fund, founded back in 2009, by James Woodson Davis, the fund’s current owner and portfolio manager. Prior to starting his own fund, Mr.Davis sharpened his investment knowledge at Venesprie Capital, Tiger Management, and Axial Capital, where he worked as an analyst. He holds MSA, MBA in Accounting, Finance from Wake Forest University and BA in History from Davidson College. Woodson Capital Management is one of the Tiger Seeds, being supported by billionaire Julian Roberston from Tiger Management.
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The fund is mostly focused on investing in companies from the Technology and Consumer sectors, applying long/short investment strategy. It had generated good returns in recent years. Its Woodson Capital Partners generated a return of 3.84% back in 2013, 3.61% in 2014, 20.06% in 2015, 0.95% in 2016, 31.32% in 2017, and 16.72% in 2018 YTD (October 10, 2018). Whereas its total return amounted to 162.83%, and compound annual return was 11.8%. Woodson Capital Partners’ worst drawdown was 9.95. According to its Form ADV from March 2018, the fund managed around $378.7 million in regulatory assets under management.
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At the end of September 30, 2018, Woodson Capital Management’s equity portfolio was valued $376.7 million, and it counted around 30 holdings. The largest position was in Simply Good Foods Co (NASDAQ:SMPL), a company that sells a variety of snack products and other nutritional foods. During the third quarter, the fund raised its stake in the company by 8% to 1.27 million shares, worth around $24.65 million. Simply Good Foods has a market cap of $1.59 billion; over the past 12 months, its stock gained 41.19% and at the moment of writing, it is trading at $19.40. In its last financial report for the first quarter 2019, the company reported an increase in net sales by 13.5% from the first quarter 2018 to $120.9 million. Earnings per diluted share were $0.18, representing another increase of $0.04 per diluted share. More about some other fund’s third quarter positions you can read on the next page.
The second most valuable holding at the end of the third quarter the fund reported in Ooma Inc (NYSE:OOMA), a consumer telecommunications company. The stake was worth $22.84 million, on the account of 1.38 million shares. Among Woodson Capital Management’s top 10 stock pick at the end of Q3 2018, was Alphabet Inc Class A (NASDAQ:GOOGL), which is one of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds in Q3 of 2018. The company has a market cap of $735.14 billion, and its stock lost 9.41% over the past six months, currently trading at $1061.26. The fund held 13,300 Alphabet’s shares, with a value of $16.05 million. There were 137 hedge funds from our table with long positions in Alphabet Inc (GOOGL) at the end Q3 2018, up from 125 in the previous quarter.
Woodson Capital Management initiated the biggest new position during the third quarter of 2018 in Spirit AeroSystems Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SPR), the biggest first-tier aerostructures manufacturer in the world, with a market cap of $8.12 billion. The fund purchased 89,500 Spirit AeroSystems’ shares, with a value of $8.20 million, hence this position accounted for 2.17% of its equity portfolio. Over the past 12 months, Spirit AeroSystem’s stock lost 18.61%, and it is now trading at $76.63. In its financial report for Q3 2018, the company reported revenues of $1.81 million, compared to revenues for Q3 2017 of $1.75 million, and adjusted EPS of $1.70 versus EPS of $1.26 in Q3 2017. At the end of Spetember 2018, there were 32 smart money investors from Insider Monkey’s database long the stock, up by two from the previous quarter. The second biggest new position the fund obtained in a consumers electronic company, Sonos Inc (NASDAQ:SONO), by obtaining 175,000 shares, with a value of $2.81 million.
During the third quarter of 2018, Woodson Capital Managmenet lost faith in several companies, completely selling out its positions. The biggest position the fund decided to dump in this period was in Facebook, Inc. Common Stock (NASDAQ:FB), which counted 66,200 shares, with a value of $12.86 million. The fund also sold out its holdings of Mohawk Industries, Inc. (NYSE:MHK) and Tapestry Inc (NYSE:TPR), saying goodbye to the positions worth $6.43 million, on the account of 30,000 shares and $5.83 million, on the account of 124,700 shares, respectively.
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This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
