Second Curve Reports 10% Stake in The First Marblehead Corporation (FMD)

Tom Brown‘s Second Curve Capital has revealed in a newly amended filing with the SEC disclosed inching up its position in the micro cap company The First Marblehead Corporation (NYSE:FMD). Second Curve currently holds approximately 1.14 million shares of the company, versus 1.12 million held as of the end of March. The new position is equal to around 10% of The First Marblehead Corporation’s common stock.

The First Marblehead Corporation (NYSE:FMD) is a finance company specialized on education loan programs for K-12 undergraduate and graduate students in the U.S. The company also provides tuition planning, billing, refund management and payment technology services. The stock of the company has dropped by over 43% since the beginning of the year, and by more than 65% over the past year.

For the third quarter of its fiscal 2014, ended in March, the company has reported a net loss of $5.1 million, equal to $0.45 per share, narrowing it from a loss of $8.8 million, or $0.79 per share for the third quarter of the previous fiscal year. The revenue of The First Marblehead Corporation (NYSE:FMD) also went up by $2.0 million on the year to $14.8 million.  For the first nine months of its fiscal year, the company posted a net loss of $24.3 million, a significant improvement from a loss of $35.0 million for the same period of the previous year.

Emanuel J. Friedman‘s EJF Capital is another shareholder of The First Marblehead Corporation (NYSE:FMD), reporting ownership of 621,500 shares in its latest 13F. Sander Gerber‘s Hudson Bay Capital Management raised its exposure to the finance company by 190% on the quarter to 100,000. Jim Simons‘ Renaissance Technologies also holds around 63,600 shares of the company, according to its latest 13F filing.

Second Curve Capital, at the end of the first quarter, held an equity portfolio worth $430.2 million, which is mainly focused in the Financial sector. The largest stake is represented by a $68.5 million stake in NewStar Financial Inc (NASDAQ:NEWS), which contains 4.94 million shares, followed by Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC), of which the fund owns 6.74 million shares, worth $55.38 million.

Disclosure: none