Kelly Cardwell – Central Square Management Boosted Stake in $PLNR

Kelly Cardwell’s Central Square Management reported on November 31st that the firm has 5.07% passive stake in Planar Systems Inc. (PLNR). According to the filing, Central Square Management now takes 1 million shares in PLNR, which is a 44% expansion from its 694 thousand shares position at the end of September. Since the firm passed the 5% ownership on October 31st, it’s possible that Kelly Cardwell bought those shares near $1.90. Now PLNR is trading at $2.05, almost break-even in 2011.

In the second quarter, Central Square Management reported 651 thousand shares in the stock. Three other famous hedge funds also took PLNR at that time. Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates increased its position by 3% and revealed 2.05 million shares in the stock. Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies had 1.12 million shares, and David E Shaw’s D. E. Shaw reported 18 thousand shares in the stock.

David Shaw

According to Institutional Investor, Kelly Cardwell serves as a Managing Partner in Central Square, which “began trading on August 3rd, 2007, and saw assets under management grow from $4.3 million to $35 million in just under two years. Prior to founding Central Square, Cardwell held an analyst position at Fidelity Investments, departing as portfolio manager in 2007. During his tenure at Fidelity, Cardwell managed the $60 million Select Automotive Fund, before transitioning to the $1 billion Select Software and Computer Services Fund, ranked as the number one performing fund within the science and technology sector in 2006.”

Per Google Finance, Planar Systems, Inc. is “a provider of specialty display products, solutions, and services for customers in a number of end market segments. Products include display components, completed displays, and display solutions and systems based on a variety of flat panel and front- and rear-projection technologies. Planar delivers products for a variety of uses and categorizes the markets it serves: custom and embedded, video wall, information technology, and high-end home. The Company leverages its core competency in electroluminescent (EL) technologies and employs these technologies to focus on providing customized, embedded, and ruggedized displays to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and other system suppliers. The Company serves the video wall display market by offering both high-resolution LCD video walls and rear-projection cube video walls for use in large venue digital signage as well as various control room installations.”