Mr. Ross Reduced Exposure to Etsy Inc. (NASDAQ:ETSY)
– Number of shares owned by WL Ross & Co. as of March 31: 35,400
– Value of WL Ross & Co.’s holding as of March 31: $308,000
WL Ross & Co. trimmed its stake in Etsy Inc. (NASDAQ:ETSY) by 120,071 shares during the first three months of 2016, ending the March quarter with 35,400 shares valued at $308,000. The Etsy stake was yet another position acquired by Mr. Ross during the final quarter of 2015. The shares of the marketplace of hand-crafted goods are up 3% since the start of 2016, but they continue to trade significantly below their initial public offering (IPO) price of $16.00. Earlier this year, the New York-based company posted the first quarterly profit since becoming a public company in April 2015, but analysts and investors are still concerned over the company’s fast-slowing growth and decreasing number of active sellers and buyers. Etsy’s gross merchandise sales growth rate has been decelerating in recent quarters. The GMS figure rose 18% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2016 to $629.85 million, after recording a growth rate of 21% in the fourth quarter of 2015. Tiger Global Management LLC, founded by Chase Coleman, has 11.09 million shares of Etsy Inc. (NASDAQ:ETSY) in its portfolio as of the end of March.
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WL Ross & Co.’s Third-Largest Position: Cascade Bancorp (NASDAQ:CACB)
– Number of shares owned by WL Ross & Co. as of March 31: 11.47 Million
– Value of WL Ross & Co.’s holding as of March 31: $65.49 Million
The billionaire distressed asset investor and his firm held their stake in Cascade Bancorp (NASDAQ:CACB) unchanged during the January-to-March quarter at 11.47 million shares. The quarter-end stake was worth $65.49 million and accounted for 11.7% of WL Ross & Co.’s entire portfolio. The holding company for Bank of the Cascades has seen the share price of its stock drop 7% since the beginning of 2016. In early March, Cascade Bancorp finalized the acquisition of 12 Oregon branch locations and three Washington branch locations from Bank of America, National Association. The acquisition gave Cascade the opportunity to strengthen its footprint in Oregon, as well as move into the Washington market. The company’s total deposits increased 23.7% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2016 to $2.6 billion, mainly due to the $469.9 million addition in deposits from the aforementioned branch acquisition. There were nine hedge funds vehicles tracked by Insider Monkey with stakes in the holding company at the end of March, which accumulated nearly 23% of the company’s outstanding shares. Matthew Lindenbaum’s Basswood Capital reported ownership of 3.79 million of Cascade Bancorp (NASDAQ:CACB) in its latest 13F.
