Raging Capital Management and Trigran Investment’s Latest Moves

Ply Gem Holdings Inc (NYSE:PGEM) saw William C. Martin’s Raging Capital Management start a new position last week, with 3.59 million shares of Common Stock, which represent 5.3% of the company’s shares outstanding. On the opposite sidewalk, Douglas T. Granat’s Trigran Investments trimmed its exposure to NVE Corp (NASDAQ:NVEC), from 459,831 shares of Common Stock disclosed in early-July, to 430,962 shares last week. Still, this stake, which is activist by nature, accounts for approximately 8.9% of the company’s outstanding stock.

William Martin Raging Capital Management

Ply Gem Holdings Inc (NYSE:PGEM) is a $881.32 million market cap manufacturer of exterior building products in North America. According to a recent Schedule 13G form filed with the SEC, Raging Capital Management acquired 3.59 million shares of Common Stock on November 7, just after (or as) the company reported its third quarter financial results, which beat the expectations. Total net sales for the third quarter increased 7.5% to $437.8 million, while basic and fully diluted earnings per share came in at $0.32, compared to $0.25 for the third quarter of 2013.

Raging Capital Management now stands as the largest institutional shareholder (amongst those we keep track of) in Ply Gem Holdings Inc (NYSE:PGEM), followed by Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, which disclosed ownership of 988,317 shares by the end of the second quarter of 2014.

Since the end of the second quarter, Raging Capital Management also boosted its wage on 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. (NASDAQ:FLWS), by 1.43 million shares, to a total of 4.24 million shares or 15.6% of the company’s common stock.

Then there’s NVE Corp (NASDAQ:NVEC), a $362.92 million market cap company that develops and sells devices that use spintronics, a nanotechnology that relies on electron spin rather than electron charge to acquire, store and transmit information. As the stock price continues to escalate (it is up more than 28% year-to-date), Trigran Investments decided to sell some of its stock. After disposing of 28,869 shares (reverting the purchase made in early-July), the fund holds 430,962 shares of Common Stock.

According to our records, however, Trigran Investments continues to stand as the largest institutional investor in NVE Corp (NASDAQ:NVEC), trailed by Gregory Bylinsky and Jefferson Gramm’s Bandera Partners, which held 63,606 shares by the end of the second quarter of the year.

Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any stocks or funds mentioned

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