Dreamworks Animation Skg Inc (DWA) and International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) Among Top New Holdings of Cove Street Capital

The second largest new entrant in Cove Street’s equity portfolio is International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM), which accounted for 1.45% of the portfolio’s value. The ailing $167.95 billion technology company has partially made up for its slide since 2013 by gaining some 7.38% so far this year. Cove Street held nearly 69,000 shares of International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) valued at $11.07 million at the end of March. Legendary investor Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway is another strong supporter of the company and has been increasing his exposure to IBM during the company’s downturn. His holding company held 76.97 million shares of International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM), according to its latest filing as of the end of 2014. The tech company recently launched cloud-based services geared towards enterprises and developers who are looking to extract meaningful data from Twitter. Among other ventures that IBM has recently engaged in is its partnership with Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) to provide the ad clients of the social media platform with better cloud-based marketing apps for improved targeting of audiences.

The third largest newly-initiated stock was in Actuant Corporation (NYSE:ATU) with nearly 446,000 shares valued at $10.59 million. The holding constituted 1.39% of the fund’s portfolio value. This year has been tough for the $1.43 billion designer, manufacturer and distributor of industrial products, as its stock has slid into the red by 10.1% year-to-date. Actuant Corporation (NYSE:ATU) disappointed investors with the financial results from its fiscal 2015 second quarter, which were marked by an EPS of $0.28 missing estimates by $0.02 and $301 million in revenues that fell short of expectations by $7.58 million. While sales from the company’s industrial and energy segments climbed by 2%, the engineered solutions segment saw a decline of 8% year-over-year. This was coupled with a net $82 million non-cash impairment charge and losses owing to foreign currency rate changes. Actuant Corporation (NYSE:ATU) is also in favor with other fund managers including Brian Bares and Richard S. Pzena.

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