Alexander Seaver’s Stadium Capital Love These Stocks

Ascena Retail Group Inc (NASDAQ:ASNA) came in third, with Stadium reporting a $74.88 million stake that contains 5.96 million shares. The fund raised its stake in the company by 20% during the fourth quarter. An overview of the data that we have compiled after the end of the latest round of 13F filings shows that the number of funds holding Ascena Retail Group Inc (NASDAQ:ASNA)’s stock went up to 27 from 24, and the aggregate value of their holdings appreciated to some $326.60 million. Stadium has been steadily increasing its exposure to Ascena throughout the last year. Meanwhile, the stock of the women and teen girls apparel retailer lost around 40% during 2014, on the back of weak financial results. During the fourth quarter, Christopher Shackelton and Adam Gray’s Coliseum Capital initiated a stake in Ascena Retail Group Inc (NASDAQ:ASNA) with 1.72 million shares.

In Express, Inc. (NYSE:EXPR) and Big 5 Sporting Goods Corporation (NASDAQ:BGFV), Stadium disclosed ownership of 2.58 million shares and 2.51 million shares respectively. Moreover, in Express, Inc. (NYSE:EXPR) the fund raised its stake by 46% during the fourth quarter. In Big 5 Sporting Goods, even though the stake remained unchanged during the fourth quarter, the fund has been actively exchanging words with the company in the last couple of months. Recently, the board of directors formed a so-called “Super Committee” with full power of the board, but excluded Stadium’s representative, Dominic Demarco. The company said that Mr. Demarco was excluded in order to avoid any conflict of interests and as a response towards Stadium’s aggressive moves. Demarco was appointed to the board in 2011, as the fund was concerned regarding the corporate governance of Big 5 Sporting Goods Corporation (NASDAQ:BGFV). The stock of the sporting goods retailer fell by more than 40% over the last 52 weeks, but it has attracted more attention from investors in the last quarter.

Among the funds that we track, the number of shareholders of Big 5 Sporting Goods Corporation (NASDAQ:BGFV) went up to 19 from 12 in the previous quarter. On the other hand, Express has seen a decrease in popularity with 18 funds reporting long positions, down from 23 funds a quarter earlier. Aside from Stadium, Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors is another shareholder of Big 5 Sporting Goods with 402,500 shares as of the end of December, and Carlson Capital disclosed holding around 4.72 million shares of Express, Inc. (NYSE:EXPR) in its latest 13F filing.

Disclosure: None