Chuck Royce Bets on Small Caps: Buckle Inc (BKE), MKS Instruments, Inc. (MKSI), UniFirst Corp (UNF)

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Royce & Associates’s second-largest position is represented by instrument-maker MKS Instruments, Inc. (NASDAQ:MKSI), in which the fund upped its stake by 1% to 6.81 million shares worth $258.41 million. For the second quarter, MKS Instruments, Inc. (NASDAQ:MKSI) reported a growth in sales of 18% on the year to $218 million, which was higher than the estimates of $210.6 million. The company also posted a net income of $33.2 million, compared to $21.2 million delivered a year earlier, while its EPS of $0.62 beat the estimate of $0.61. MKS Instruments, Inc. (NASDAQ:MKSI) also announced a quarterly dividend of $0.17 per share, which gives the stock a yield of 1.93%. At the end of the first quarter, a total of 26 funds from our database an increase of seven in the number of hedge funds holding positions in it at the end of the first quarter with 26 hedge funds holding positions worth $364.52 million against the previous quarter. In its latest 13F for the second quarter, Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management reported ownership of 696,069 shares of MKS Instruments, Inc. (NASDAQ:MKSI) worth $26.41 million.

UniFirst Corp (NYSE:UNF) comes on the third spot in Royce & Associates’s 13F. The fund held 2.22 million shares valued at $248.09 million at the end of June, the stake amassing 11% of the company’s outstanding stock. The company reported better-than-expected results for the third quarter of fiscal 2015, surpassing both earnings and revenue estimates. UniFirst Corp (NYSE:UNF) delivered revenues of $365.6 million and earnings per share of $1.61 against revenue estimates of $360.4 million on EPS of $1.39. On a year-over-year basis, UniFirst Corp reported a 3.8% revenue growth of and net income appreciation of 5.0. Among the funds we track, Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies was another major shareholder of the company with 132,500 shares valued at $15.59 million at the end of the first quarter.

Disclosure: None

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