Edward S. Lampert, ESL Investments Reduce Position in Sears Holdings Corp (SHLD)

Edward S. Lampert and his fund ESL Investments have cut their position in Sears Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:SHLD). A newly amended filing with the SEC revealed ESL holding around 51.6 million shares of the company, down from over 55.9 million disclosed in an earlier filing. ESL holds 48.4% of the company’s common stock, the value of the position amounting close to $2.9 billion, at the current stock price of the company.

According to a form 4, Mr. Lampert has recently received around 7,200 shares of Sears, under the company’s stock plan. Mr. Lampert serves as Chairman of Sears Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:SHLD). At the same time, ESL has distributed around 7.4 million shares of the company at the beginning of December.

Sears Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:SHLD) has posted a net loss of $534 million, equal to $5.03 per share in the third quarter of 2013, higher then $498 million reported in the same period of 2012. The revenue fell to $8.3 billion, from $8.9 billion in the third quarter of 2012. Recently the company announced that its partial subsidiary, Sears Canada sold five of its store leases to Cadillac Fairview Corporation Limited, the value of the deal amounting to approximately $375 million (400 million CAD). Sears Canada was partially spun off last year, Sears Holding trimming its exposure to 51% from 95.5% held previously.

ESL is the largest shareholder of Sears. Sears Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:SHLD) is also the largest holding in ESL’s equity portfolio.  Fairholme (Fairx), managed by Bruce Berkowitz disclosed holding 20.8 million shares, worth around $1.2 million in its latest 13F.

Recently, Mr. Lampert’s fund has been trimming its holding in AutoNation, Inc. (NYSE:AN). A couple of days ago, the fund reported selling another 148,000 shares, currently holding directly 14.8 million shares, down from 19.4 million disclosed in the latest 13F.

Disclosure: none

Correction: This article previously contained erroneous information in regard to the amount of shares held by the fund before the latest filing and has been corrected. 

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