CONN’S, Inc. (CONN): Anchorage Capital Buys More Shares As Stock Heads Up

In a new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Anchorage Capital Advisors, a fund led by Kevin Michael Ulrich and Anthony Davis, surged its stake in CONN’S, Inc. (NASDAQ:CONN) to 3.62 million shares, from 1.37 million shares held earlier. The stock of the consumer electronics retailer jumped by over 45% since the beginning of the year, on the back of strong growth in revenues and earnings. The company seems to be recovering after a terrible 2014, during which it stock lost around 76% as CONN’S, Inc. (NASDAQ:CONN) turned to a net loss in the fourth quarter on the back of additional provisions for credit losses.

Anchorage is a long/short hedge fund that has around $12 billion in assets including some $4.84 billion in equities. The fund primarily focuses on distressed investment opportunities and in the equity markets it uses fundamentals-driven approach the fund returned around 16.4% in 2012 and 21% in 2013. At the end of last year, the top three largest long positions in Anchorage were represented by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Co (NASDAQ:HMHC), Cheniere Energy, Inc. (NYSEMKT:LNG), and Central Pacific Financial Corp. (NYSE:CPF), amassing in aggregate over 20% of the fund’s total equity portfolio. CONN’S, Inc. (NASDAQ:CONN) was one of the new positions initiated during the fourth quarter.

Mr. Ulrich is not the only investor that has been bullish on CONN’S, Inc. (NASDAQ:CONN) of late. At the end of last week, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group also disclosed raising its exposure to the retailer to 1.79 million shares, from only 54,000 shares held earlier. Moreover, David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital and Christian Leone’s Luxor Capital Group both rank among the largest shareholders of CONN’S, Inc. (NASDAQ:CONN) among institutional investors. At the end of 2014, Luxor held 7.59 million shares and Greenlight owned 3.56 million shares.

Disclosure: none