Raging Capital Boosted Its Stake In $VTSS

Raging Capital filed on December 9th to reveal its 12.7% passive stake in Vitesse Semiconductor Corp (VTSS). According to the filing, Raging Capital now has nearly 3.12 million shares in VTSS. The firm initially reported its VTSS position on October 17th when it had 2.01 million shares in the stock. So now Raging Capital’s position is increased by 55%. VTSS has lost 40% so far in 2011. The stock is trading at $2.55 at 10:30 AM on Monday.

There are several other hedge funds that were also bullish about VTSS, based on their third quarter holdings. Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates took the largest chunk, with 1.18 million shares in the stock. This is after Royce & Associates increased its position by 16%. Stuart Peterson’s Artis Capital Management had 881 thousand shares, while Cliff Asness’ AQR Capital Management had 297 thousand shares in the stock.

Raging Capital Management is a small-to-mid-cap public equity focused hedge fund. The firm was founded by William C. Martin in 2006 in Princeton, NJ. Mr. Martin now serves as the Chairman and Chief Investment Officer in the firm.

Per Google Finance, Vitesse Semiconductor Corporation “is a worldwide supplier of integrated circuits (ICs) that are utilized by manufacturers of networking systems for Carrier, Enterprise and Storage communications applications. Vitesse designs, develops and markets a range of semiconductor products. The Company has developed and manufactured a variety of products that are marketed to Carrier and Enterprise Networking and data center infrastructure original equipment manufacturer (OEMs). During the fiscal year ended September 30, 2010 (fiscal 2010), it introduced 30 new products to market. Its product categories include Transport Processing Product Line, Ethernet Switching Product Line and Connectivity Product Line.”