First Industrial Realty Trust, Inc. (FR), White Mountains Insurance Group Ltd (WTM) Among Third Avenue’s Top Small-Cap Picks

Third Avenue held a total of 149,970 shares of White Mountains Insurance Group Ltd (NYSE:WTM), which had a market value of $102.66 million at the end of the first quarter, a slight decline from 154,458  shares held at the end of 2014. White Mountains Insurance Group Ltd (NYSE:WTM) currently has a market cap of $3.79 billion and is expected to register better performance for fiscal 2016 than it is in fiscal 2015, with estimated earnings per share of $18.60 next fiscal year compared to $16.40 this year. Shares of the company entered oversold territory in the middle of May, but made only a brief rally before beginning to dip again, though they remain up by nearly 2% year-to-date. Besides Third Avenue Management there are several other hedge funds that have invested in the stock, including Elkhorn Partners and Scott Wallace‘s Wallace Capital Management.

At the end of the first quarter, Third Avenue held a total of 3.63 million shares of Equity Commonwealth (NYSE:EQC) valued at $96.44 million. This represented a slight increase in its stake in the company compared to the previous quarter when it had a total of 3.60 million shares. The REIT recently announced that Moody’s Investors Service had revised its outlook to “Stable” from “Negative”. This is a result of the company’s strategic repositioning approach that’s aimed at making the stock healthier. Since Sam Zell, a respected real estate investor, and his able team took over the helm at Equity Commonwealth, they have worked to turn things around for the better. The first quarter of 2015 has illuminated some of the progress made so far in turning the company in the right direction. The company’s Funds from Operations for the quarter were $65.4 million, or $0.50 per share. The quarter was also characterized by the sale of three buildings through which it raked in $21.2 million, gaining $5.9 million in the process. As part of its restructuring strategy, Equity Commonwealth (NYSE:EQC) is currently selling property worth $750 million and is expected to sell properties to the tune of between $2-3 billion through the 2017 fiscal year. This is in order to strengthen its balance sheet and consider new acquisitions. A total of 30 hedge funds had holdings of the stock at the end of the first quarter valued at $654.30 million, a significant stake in the $3.28 billion company. Just a couple of these hedge funds are Ed Bosek‘s Beaconlight Capital and Kenney Y. Oh’s Seastone Capital Management.

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