Activist West Face Capital Makes Move On Gran Tierra Energy Inc. (GTE), Plus The Fund’s Top Picks

The second ranked holding of the Canadian fund is represented by SunOpta Inc. (USA)(NASDAQ:STKL), in which West Face Capital’s stake contains 4.37 million shares worth $46.5 million. The stake remained unchanged over the course of the first quarter. With a market cap of $706 million, SunOpta Inc. (USA)(NASDAQ:STKL) is a global company focused on natural, organic and specialty foods. For the first quarter of 2015, the company posted earnings of $5.2 million, or $0.08 per diluted common share, versus earnings of $6.6 million, or $0.10 per diluted common share in the same quarter last year, while its revenues decreased by 5.9% to $303.4 million. On the insider trading front, director Jeremy Kendall recently unloaded 50,000 SunOpta shares at an average price of $12.72. Following the sale, Kendall still owns 424,164 shares of the company. Another investor that sees value in SunOpta Inc. (USA)(NASDAQ:STKL) is Mariko Gordon’s Daruma Asset Management, which holds 5.03 million shares as of March 31.

Lastly is SunCoke Energy Inc (NYSE:SXC), in which West Face Capital reduced its stake by 5% to 2.59 million shares worth $38.6 million. SunCoke Energy Inc (NYSE:SXC) is an independent producer of coke in the Americas, with a marker cap of 983.12 million. In the first quarter of 2015, SunCoke Energy Inc (NYSE:SXC) posted a loss from continuing operations of $2.0 million, or $0.03 per share, versus a loss of $1.8 million, or $0.02 per share, in the same period last year. One of the notable recent moves of the company was the increase of its quarterly cash dividend by 28%. The company declared a dividend of $0.075 per share of common stock, to be paid June 10 to stockholders of record at the close of business on May 5. The increased dividend provides a yield of 1.26%, helped by SunCoke Energy Inc (NYSE:SXC)’s stock, which has not been performing well, declining by 22.12% year-to-date. In a letter to the board of directors of SunCoke Energy Inc (NYSE:SXC), Matthew Mark’s Jet Capital Investors criticized the company’s management for not taking any meaningful action in recent months to create shareholder value. In its 13F filing, Jet Capital disclosed owning 4.12 million SunCoke Energy Inc (NYSE:SXC) shares as of March 31.

Disclosure: None