Eric Sprott‘s Sprott Asset Management has initiated a new position in Aemetis Inc (NASDAQ:AMTX) according to a recent 13G filling with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The holding is comprised of 1.23 million shares and represents 6.2% of the outstanding common stock of the producer of renewable fuels and biochemicals.
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Toronto-based fund Sprott Asset Management dates back to 1981. Among the accolades of its founder, Eric Sprott, is his award for being the most influential hedge fund manager in 2012, bestowed by Terrapinn Inc. Sprott Management offers a wide variety of investment solutions and its product offerings include mutual funds, alternative strategies, physical bullion trusts and tax-efficient funds. Currently, the fund has about $2.94 billion worth of assets under management and the market value of its public equity portfolio stood at $1.26 billion at the end of the first quarter. The finance and energy sectors accounted for 37% and 15% of the holdings respectively, with its top equity picks being CGI Technologies and Solutions Inc (NYSE:GIB), Talisman Energy Inc. (USA) (NYSE:TLM), and NXP Semiconductors NV (NASDAQ:NXPI), which we’ll look at later in the article.
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Suffering from a decline in the price of ethanol and wet distiller’s grains, Aemetis Inc (NASDAQ:AMTX) reported $34.7 million in revenues for the first three months of the year, as compared to $60.7 million in the same quarter last year. This resulted in a net loss per share of $0.42 as compared to an EPS of $0.38 in the first quarter of 2014. So far this year, Aemetis Inc (NASDAQ:AMTX)’s stock has slumped by over 27%. Since the beginning of the year, Aemetis has been expanding its biodiesel sales to truck operators in southern and western India following the Indian government’s permission to directly sell biodiesel without the intermediate involvement of the three national oil marketing companies. Another investor in Aemetis Inc (NASDAQ:AMTX) is Glenn Russell Dubin‘s Highbridge Capital, owning 70,800 shares valued at $299,000.
With 1.02 million shares valued at $43.32 million, CGI Technologies and Solutions Inc (NYSE:GIB) was Sprott’s largest holding and represented about 3.45% of the fund’s portfolio value. The stock of the $11.58 billion IT consulting company has appreciated by 7.65% year-to-date. Among other prominent investors of CGI Technologies and Solutions Inc (NYSE:GIB) is Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management, which owns 692,200 shares valued at $29.38 million.
Sprott acquired some 3.01 million shares of Talisman Energy Inc. (USA) (NYSE:TLM) during the first quarter to lift the total stake to 4.76 million shares valued at $36.53 million. The fund’s second-largest holding represented 2.91% of its portfolio value. Among the billionaires that we track, four had an aggregate investment of $658.08 million in the company. John Paulson was one of them, as his fund Paulson & Co held 70.0 million shares of Talisman Energy Inc. (USA) (NYSE:TLM) valued at $536.92 million at the end of March.
The fund’s third-largest holding, in NXP Semiconductors NV (NASDAQ:NXPI), was comprised of some 343,100 shares valued at $34.44 million. So far this year NXP Semiconductors NV (NASDAQ:NXPI)’s stock has risen by a staggering 34%. The $25.75 billion technology company uses high performance mixed signal electronics to create products for the automotive, wireless infrastructure, healthcare and industrial sectors. Among the funds that we track, the interest in NXP Semiconductors NV (NASDAQ:NXPI) increased during the first quarter as 67 funds had an aggregate investment of $3.39 billion in the company at the end of March compared to 58 firms with $2.45 billion invested at the end of the previous quarter. Billionaire Andreas Halvorsen‘s Viking Global is the largest stockholder of NXP Semiconductors NV (NASDAQ:NXPI) in our database with 4.40 million shares valued at $441.81 million.
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