Hedge Funds Have Bought TiVo and More

Royce & Associates, a fund managed by Chuck Royce, increased its stake in Seacor Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CKH), a marine transportation company. Royce now owns about 6% of Seacor. While the company’s top line numbers appear poor, the headline decrease in revenue is due to worse numbers in commodity trading and earnings have actually been up. The stock carries trailing and forward P/Es of 23 and 17, respectively, with continued bullishness from the Street resulting in a five-year PEG ratio of 0.8. We noticed that many of Seacor’s peers actually appeared to be cheaper in terms of earnings or EBITDA multiples. Read more about Seacor and its peers.

Michael Johnston’s Steelhead Partners reported a position of 1.8 million shares in Rudolph Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:RETC). The fund had not owned any shares at the end of September (find stocks that Steelhead did own). Rudolph focuses on providing defect inspection equipment to the semiconductor industry. The company’s revenue and net income were up strongly in the third quarter of 2012 versus a year earlier; pretax income actually doubled. In addition, Rudolph has over $170 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities on its balance sheet and this makes up a considerable portion of its market cap. The trailing P/E is 22, but we think the cash and recent growth make it worth considering.