Mario Gabelli Discloses Freshly-Made Activist Moves In Astec Industries Inc. (ASTE), Mueller Industries Inc. (MLI), And Others

A separate 13D filing reveals that GAMCO Investors holds an ownership stake of 3.46 million shares in The Brink’s Company (NYSE:BCO), which represents 7.12% of the company’s outstanding common stock. Thus, the asset management firm reduced its stake in the global security service provider by 488,267 since its most recent 13D filing on the company. Even though the shares of Brink’s have grown by over 18% year-to-date, the stock has been riding a continuous downtrend for the last three months. Ron Orol, a senior editor at The Deal, claims that a proxy fight with Brink’s may be right around the corner if the company doesn’t improve its share price. Orol suggests that Jeffrey Smith’s Starboard Value, which has launched 29 proxy fights over the past five years, might push Brink’s to make valuable changes in order to improve its share price, as it holds a sizeable stake in the security service provider. From the pool of over 700 hedge funds that we track, Matt Sirovich and Jeremy Mindich’s Scopia Capital represents the largest shareholder in The Brink’s Company (NYSE:BCO) with 3.65 million shares. Starboard Value opened a new position consisting of 2.08 million shares in the first quarter.

Last but not least, GAMCO Investors disclosed owning 5.79 million shares of Mueller Industries Inc. (NYSE:MLI), which represent 10.16% of the company’s outstanding common stock. The main fund of GAMCO Investors, GAMCO Asset Management, increased its stake in Mueller by 205,292 share since its most recent 13F filing and currently holds 3.79 million of the aforementioned figure of 5.79 million shares. The shares of Mueller have dropped by 7% year-to-date, primarily due to a recent slump after posting its latest earnings report. The leading manufacturer of standard and lead-free brass alloys for plumbing and other industrial applications posted net income of $33.7 million or $0.59 per diluted share for the second quarter of the year, compared to net income of $35.0 million or $0.62 per diluted share reported in the same quarter a year ago. Meanwhile, the net sales generated by the company amounted to $555.6 million, compared to $659.7 million reported a year ago. It seems that the 7% drop in the share price of Mueller over the last week created a great buying opportunity for investors and GAMCO Investors went for this opportunity. Within our database, the hedge fund managed by Jeffrey Gates, Gates Capital Management, is among the largest investors in Mueller Industries Inc. (NYSE:MLI), owning 3.39 million shares as of March 31.

Disclosure: None