As we continue to track hedge funds’ 13D and 13G filings, I came across two interesting transactions. On Tuesday, Mark Broach’s Manatuck Hill Partners disclosed a 52.9% increase in its exposure to Good Times Restaurants Inc. (NASDAQ:GTIM), while Joe Huber’s Huber Capital Management declared a 20.5% reduction in its stake in A M Castle and Co (NYSE:CAS). Let’s take a closer look at these moves:
Huber Capital Management is the largest hedge fund shareholder of record –amongst those we track- at A M Castle and Co (NYSE:CAS). By the end of the second quarter of 2014, the fund acknowledged ownership of 1.92 million shares, worth more than $21 million, of the $226 million market cap specialty metals & plastics distribution company. However, according to its last Schedule 13D filing, Huber sold more than 390,000 shares since late-July (for prices ranging from $8.76 per share to $11.24 per share), and now holds 1.52 million shares of the company’s Common Stock.
This position accounts for 6.5% of A M Castle and Co (NYSE:CAS)’s outstanding Common Stock, and still makes it the largest hedge fund shareholder in the company. Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates seems more bullish about the company, since it last declared a 107% increase in its bet; by June 30, the fund owned 1.47 million shares of Common Stock.
Good Times Restaurants Inc. (NASDAQ:GTIM) is a $37.2 million market cap developer, owner, operator and franchisor of hamburger-oriented drive-through restaurants under the names Good Times Burgers & Frozen Custard. Also on September 16, Manatuck Hill Partners disclosed a transaction from early-August: the fund added 166,300 shares of Common Stock to its holdings, which now amount to 480,300 shares. This wage, worth almost $2.5 million, accounts for 6.4% of the company’s shares outstanding.
Mark Broach’s Manatuck Hill Partners is the only hedge fund (amongst those we keep track of) that has invested in Good Times Restaurants Inc. (NASDAQ:GTIM). The company recently reported a 12% in same-store sales for August 2014. In 2013, growth had reached 18.7% for this month, representing a two-year increase of 30.7%. The management said that September will be the last month for which it will report monthly same-store sales results; instead, it plans to continue to report them quarterly.
Manatuck is a corporate spin off of the troubled Pequot Capital Management founded in 2009 by the team that managed the small-cap Pequot Scout Fund. It last disclosed an equity portfolio worth more than half a billion dollars, mainly focused on consumer discretionary stocks, which account for 46.6% of its total equity portfolio.
Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any stocks or funds mentioned
