Small-Cap Wizardess Debra Fine Conjuring Up Returns With These Small-Cap Stock Picks

Fine Capital raised its stake in Shutterfly, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFLY), its second-ranked small-cap pick, by 18% during the first quarter to almost 2.27 million shares valued at $102.6 million. The company’s board has been engaged in a bitter proxy fight with Mario Cibelli’s Marathon Partners, which owns 1.88 million shares in the company as of March 31. However, it seems things will be sorted out between the two entities soon, as the preliminary results of the recently-held shareholder vote have shown that each of Marathon Partners’ nominees, Mario Cibelli and Thomas D. Hughes, were elected to the company’s Board of Directors and CEO Jeffrey T. Housenbold was re-elected. On an average, analysts have an ‘Overweight’ rating on Shutterfly, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFLY), with an average price target of $50.45, very close to its current trading range of $46-48.

Although Evertec Inc (NYSE: EVTC) is the third-ranked small-cap pick of Fine Capital, it constitutes 8.58% of the fund’s current public equity portfolio, just one percentage point less than Shutterfly, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFLY). As of March 31, Fine Capital had increased its stake in the company by 45% to almost 4.69 million shares valued at $102.49 million.  Evertec Inc (NYSE: EVTC) declared diluted EPS of $0.24 on revenue of $91.33 million for the first-quarter of this year, compared to diluted EPS of $0.23 on revenue of $87.21 million that it reported for the first-quarter of 2014. The Street is generally bullish on the stock with an average recommendation of ‘Overweight’. The stock at $22.52 is currently trading very close to analysts’ average price target of $23.29 however. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Advisors is another large shareholder of Evertec, owning 1.53 million shares.

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