Stadium Capital Management Slices Position in Big 5 Sporting Goods Corporation

Alexander Medina Seaver‘s hedge fund Stadium Capital Management revealed, in a new form 4 with the Securities and Exchange Commission, selling about 31,800 shares of Big 5 Sporting Goods Corporation (NASDAQ:BGFV). Following the sale, Stadium holds around 2.58 million shares of the company. The stock has been sold in three transactions the average price amounting to $18.55 per share. The total gains from the disposal of shares amounts to $589,300.

The stock of Big 5 Sporting Goods has grown by 41% since the beginning of the year, trailing a forward P/E of 12.xx. With a market cap of over $400 million, the company is one of the largest among operators of sporting goods stores.

For the third quarter of its fiscal 2013, Big 5 posted net sales of $259.1 million, up from $251.8 million disclosed a year ago. Same store sales went up by 1.4% on the year. Amid an increase in its net sales, the company had an increase in its net income, which totaled $9.1 million, equal to $0.41 per share, versus $8.2 million, or $0.38 per share posted in the same period of last year. For the last quarter of the year, Big 5 plans to have EPS between $0.2 and $0.28, higher than $0.19 showed in the last quarter of 2012. The company opened five new stores during the third quarter, and plans to open nine more by the end of the year, in this way, for the whole 2013, Big 5 will have a total of new 15 stores opened, the company said in a statement.

Aside from Stadium, Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors disclosed holding 291,700 shares of Big 5 Sporting Goods in its latest 13F filing, the value of the stake amounting to $4.7 million. Cliff Asness’ Aqr Capital Management increased its holding in the company by 186,600 shares to 228,400 shares, worth $3.7 million.

Disclosure: none

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