The market is responding positively to SUPERVALU INC. (NYSE:SVU)’s announcement that it is considering spinning off Save-A-Lot into a separate publicly-traded company, as its stock is up to $8.69 per share earlier, up by 18.14% in early-afternoon trading. According to the firm, if it decides to split off Save-A-Lot, the two resulting independent firms will be able to better focus on growing their respective businesses. Save-A-Lot, a discount grocery chain, has over 1,300 locations, 430 of which are company-owned and 900 of which are franchises. In total the chain accounted for approximately 26% of SuperValu’s revenue in the first quarter. The news that SUPERVALU INC. (NYSE:SVU) is considering a spinoff of Save-A-Lot comes as SuperValu beat top and bottom line expectations in the company’s fiscal second quarter that ended on June 20. The firm reported net income attributable to SuperValu of $61 million or $0.23 per share, up by 42% year-on-year, on net sales of $5.41 billion, up by 2.7% compared to the year-ago quarter. Wall Street was expecting earnings of $0.20 per share on sales of $5.39 billion.
The SUPERVALU INC. (NYSE:SVU) spike today and its beat for the second quarter appears to be contrary to the bearishness of hedge funds in the first quarter. While it may seem that hedge funds were bullish in the maiden quarter of the year, as at the end of the first quarter, a total of 36 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, up from 29 in the fourth quarter, the total value of their holdings went down by 8.57% quarter-on-quarter, to about $580 million, despite the stock soaring by nearly 20% from January 2 to March 31. Funds were certainly right in that sense, as shares crumbled by 30% in the second quarter.
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Insider Monkey also tracks insider trades to deduce the sentiment of insiders in their companies. However, there have been no purchases or sales of shares by insiders of SuperValu this year.
Let’s look at how SuperValu has been traded by hedge funds in the first quarter on the next page.
