Latest Moves of Carlson Capital, Cannell Capital and Blum Capital Partners

Cannell Capital has been in business for quite some time now, since it was established back in 1992. Carlo Cannell had prior experience working at the San Fransico-based investment bank, Dakin Securities before he set up his own shop. The fund’s equity portfolio had a market value of $302.46 million at the end of the fourth quarter with about 31% of that value invested in the information technology sector.

The stock of TeleCommunication Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSYS) gained around 33.33% over the past year and is trading at a forward earnings multiple of 10.54. The $201.36 million technology company recently signed a three year licensing agreement with ISACA, the provider of practical guidance and tools for businesses using information systems, for its cybersecurity curriculum, Art of Exploitation (AoE) and the learning tool, PerformanScore. Matthew Drapkin and Steven R. Becker’s Becker Drapkin Management increased their stake in TeleCommunication Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSYS) by 119% during the fourth quarter to 3.69 million shares.

Career Education Corp. (NASDAQ:CECO)’s stock declined by 38.29% year to date, despite a 17% spike in March after the company reported a much smaller loss than the analysts expected. Along with Career Education Corp. (NASDAQ:CECO), other for-profit education companies have come under selling pressure lately owing to the recent development that led Corinthian Colleges, one of the largest for-profit college chains, to close all its schools. Following a lengthy government investigation in which it was found that Corinithian had been rigging job placement rates, the easy access to student loans that the company was thriving on has been severed.

Blum’s stake in Career Education Corp. (NASDAQ:CECO) is reflective of the fund’s focus on small and mid-cap companies. The San Francisco based investment firm has a long history dating back to 1975, when it was established. The market value of the fund’s portfolio stood at $578.01 million at the end of the fourth quarter. Among the funds that we track, 15 had investments totaling $91.16 million in Career Education Corp. (NASDAQ:CECO), at the end of 2014,  as compared to 12 hedge funds with $66.16 million. Eric Semler‘s TCS Capital Management was one of them.

Disclosure: None