Starboard Value Takes Aim at a New Activist Target, Plus All the Details on 3 Other Filings

According to a Schedule 13G filing, Royce & Associates LLC, founded by Chuck Royce, currently owns 805,900 shares of Finish Line Inc. (NASDAQ:FINL), which make up 1.82% of the company’s outstanding shares. This represents a decrease from the 3.33 million-share stake disclosed in the hedge fund’s 13F filing for the fourth quarter of 2015. Finish Line is a premium retailer of athletic shoes, apparel, and accessories whose shares have declined by 22% in the past year. Even so, the stock has gained 7% since the beginning of 2016.

Finish Line Inc. (NASDAQ:FINL)’s consolidated net sales for fiscal year 2016 that ended February 27 reached $1.89 billion, increasing by 3.8% year-over-year. What’s more, the company’s comparable-store sales grew by 1.8% year-over-year. Nonetheless, fiscal year 2016 diluted earnings per share dropped to $0.48 from $1.70 reported for the previous fiscal year. The retailer’s management anticipates same-store sales to grow in the range of $3%-to-5% in fiscal year 2017, while earnings per share are anticipated to fall in the range of $1.50-to-$1.56. The stock is priced at around 11.3-times expected earnings, significantly below the forward P/E multiple of 20.7 for the apparel retail industry. Just recently, analysts at Jefferies lifted their price target on Finish Line to $24 from $22 and maintained a ‘Buy’ rating, saying that the retailer is “setting up to go back on the offensive” by driving up earnings growth and productivity through store closures.

The number of money managers in Insider Monkey’s database which owned stakes in the retailer shrank to 18 from 25 during the October-to-December period. Richard Rubin’s Hawkeye Capital acquired a new stake of 852,045 shares in Finish Line Inc. (NASDAQ:FINL) during the December quarter.

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