In this article, we discuss the top 5 stock picks of Benjamin Natter’s Kent Lake Capital. If you want our detailed analysis of these stocks, go directly to the Top 10 Stock Picks of Benjamin Natter’s Kent Lake Capital.
5. Vericel Corporation (NASDAQ:VCEL)
Kent Lake Capital’s Stake Value: $11,097,000
Percentage of Kent Lake Capital’s 13F Portfolio: 4.77%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 16
Vericel Corporation (NASDAQ:VCEL) is a biopharmaceutical company specializing in advanced cell therapies for sports medication and severe burn care. Benjamin Natter, via Kent Lake Capital, holds an $11 million stake in Vericel Corporation (NASDAQ:VCEL), which accounts for 4.77% of the firm’s Q3 portfolio.
Vericel Corporation (NASDAQ:VCEL) posted earnings for the third quarter on November 9. The Q3 EPS totaled -$0.11, missing estimates by -$0.09. Revenue for the period equaled $34.51 million, missing estimated revenue by -$2.98 million.
Of the 867 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey at the end of September this year, 16 funds were bullish on Vericel Corporation (NASDAQ:VCEL), down from 19 in the prior quarter. The total value of these stakes equaled $92.8 million.
Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management is the leading Vericel Corporation (NASDAQ:VCEL) stakeholder, with approximately 1 million shares valued at $50.75 million.
4. Everi Holdings Inc. (NYSE:EVRI)
Kent Lake Capital’s Stake Value: $11,244,000
Percentage of Kent Lake Capital’s 13F Portfolio: 4.83%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 31
Everi Holdings Inc. (NYSE:EVRI) is a Nevada-based company that manufactures slot machines and automated teller machines for casinos, in addition to offering financial services. Benjamin Natter holds an $11.2 million stake in the company, which accounts for 4.83% of Kent Lake Capital’s Q3 investments.
As of the third quarter of 2021, 31 hedge funds monitored by Insider Monkey’s database of 867 elite funds reported owning stakes in Everi Holdings Inc. (NYSE:EVRI), worth over $300 million. This is compared to the same number of funds in the preceding quarter, with a total stake value of $319 million. Richard Driehaus’ Driehaus Capital is the leading stakeholder of the company, with 1.93 million shares valued at $46.7 million.
Everi Holdings Inc. (NYSE:EVRI) posted its Q3 results on November 3, with EPS for the quarter being $0.07, beating estimates by $0.03. Revenue for the period totaled $168.3 million, up 50.14% from the prior-year quarter, exceeding estimated revenue by $3.7 million.
Here is what ClearBridge Investments has to say about Everi Holdings Inc. (NYSE:EVRI) in its Q2 2021 investor letter:
“Our Strategy outperformed with strong results from consumer discretionary stocks like Everi Holdings. Everi Holdings is a provider of casino games, cash access and customer relationship technologies to the gaming industry that outperformed as gaming activity and growth in placement of new games generated strong financial results.”
3. XPEL, Inc. (NASDAQ:XPEL)
Kent Lake Capital’s Stake Value: $17,002,000
Percentage of Kent Lake Capital’s 13F Portfolio: 7.31%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 22
XPEL, Inc. (NASDAQ:XPEL) is a Texas-based commercial company offering products such as advanced paint protection film, automotive window tint, architectural flat glass film, and antimicrobial film for automotive, watercraft, home, and office applications.
Benjamin Natter’s Kent Lake Capital owns 224,117 shares in XPEL, Inc. (NASDAQ:XPEL), worth $17 million as of Q3 2021, representing 7.31% of the firm’s total investments.
XPEL, Inc. (NASDAQ:XPEL) announced on November 9 its earnings for the third quarter. EPS in the period came in at $0.30, missing estimates by -$0.02. The actual revenue for the company equaled $68.53 million, up 48.58% year-over-year, beating estimates by $4.16 million.
Out of the 867 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey in the third quarter, 22 funds reported owning stakes worth $145.8 million in XPEL, Inc. (NASDAQ:XPEL). This is compared to 24 hedge funds being bullish on the company in the preceding quarter with a total stake value of $154.7 million. The largest XPEL, Inc. (NASDAQ:XPEL) stakeholder according to Insider Monkey’s records is Scott Coulter’s Cowbird Capital, with a position worth $29 million in the company as of Q3.
Here is what Wasatch Micro Cap Fund has to say about XPEL, Inc. (NASDAQ:XPEL) in its Q2 2021 investor letter:
“The strongest contributor to Fund performance for the quarter was XPEL, Inc. (XPEL). The company offers automotive paint and surface protection films, automotive and architectural window films and ceramic coatings. XPEL has experienced robust growth as buyers of luxury vehicles adopt products previously sold primarily to automotive enthusiasts. Shares of XPEL moved higher in May after the company reported record top- and bottom-line results in its most recent quarter. Management cited strong demand across all regions—particularly in China, where the Covid19 outbreak hampered sales during the same quarter last year.”
2. Upwork Inc. (NASDAQ:UPWK)
Kent Lake Capital’s Stake Value: $18,687,000
Percentage of Kent Lake Capital’s 13F Portfolio: 8.03%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 35
Upwork Inc. (NASDAQ:UPWK), an American freelance marketplace, is one of Benjamin Natter’s top stock picks as of September this year. Kent Lake Capital owns 415,000 Upwork Inc. (NASDAQ:UPWK) shares, worth $18.6 million, representing 8.03% of the firm’s total investments.
Upwork Inc. (NASDAQ:UPWK), on October 27, reported a Q3 EPS of -$0.07, beating estimates by $0.02. The $121.14 million revenue was up 32.45% from the previous-year quarter, outperforming estimates by $1.55 million.
Citi analyst Nicholas Jones raised the price target on Upwork Inc. (NASDAQ:UPWK) to $74 from $72 and kept a Buy rating on the shares on October 28, following the Q3 results. He stated that Upwork Inc. (NASDAQ:UPWK) can grow in the long-term if it focuses on advertising and increases investment in the enterprise salesforce.
As of Q3 2021, 35 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on Upwork Inc. (NASDAQ:UPWK), with Gaurav Kapadia’s XN Exponent Advisors being one of the leading stakeholders of the company, holding 1.65 million shares worth $74.3 million.
Here is what Spree Capital Advisers has to say about Upwork Inc. (NASDAQ:UPWK) in their Q4 2020 investor letter:
“Early in the fourth quarter we meaningfully increased our position size in Upwork (UPWK). Upwork is a global employment marketplace that enables businesses to vet, hire, and manage talent as part of their distributed workforce. Upwork facilitates labor and demand side connectivity on a global scale by providing the infrastructure to create trust and to streamline talent sourcing, contracting, analysis and payment. Freelancers benefit from having a reputation ranking system that feeds their marketing channels, allowing them to have access to quality, flexible work and on time compensation. Businesses on the demand side benefit by having extensive access to specialized talent, enabling faster and more cost effective hiring, and by having the strategic optionality inherent in the ability to flex a portion of their workforce based on changing demand requirements.
Labor markets have long had unnecessary frictional inefficiencies driven by regional talent imbalances and long-term trends of increased specialization of labor and declining labor mobility. Meanwhile, innovations in communication and global connectivity have transformed the way work gets done. Knowledge workers seek the flexibility and geographic advantages of on demand work, but the barrier to adoption has historically been established habits and work standards on the demand side. The Covid-19 global pandemic has broken down those barriers. We see three steps in the path to enterprise usage and shareholder value creation.
First, Upwork is reducing frictional barriers to on demand labor adoption on the demand side by modularizing the most common jobs served on the platform. Project Catalog is a collection of predefined projects that businesses purchase through an ecommerce purchase experience. Users on the demand side benefit from a frictionless way to purchase well defined, quality verified tasks to augment more complex work being done by full time employees. On demand workers on the supply side benefit from having a new avenue to market and sell the services they consistently perform. Importantly, Project Catalog widens the customer acquisition funnel by providing an easy on ramp for new customers to source and connect with talent, enabling businesses to quickly start with small projects and scale to larger and longer-term projects and relationships.
Second, Upwork is shifting its go to market strategy to target large enterprises. Currently, enterprise customers with more than 100 employees account for 20% of Upwork’s $2.7 billion in gross services volume. As part of shifting the go to market strategy, small and medium sized business customers will move to a fully self-service offering, allowing Upwork’s sales force to focus on capturing the $3.5 trillion in gross services volume that large enterprise customers currently spend on contingent labor. As Upwork’s sales team targets the large underserved market opportunity presented by enterprise customers and raises awareness of the quality verified modular work units available in Project Catalogue, there is a long runway for Upwork to power offline to online conversion in the on demand labor marketplace while breaking down the barriers to adoption and growing the overall size of the market.
Third, Upwork is evolving to become an enterprise resource planning system for businesses to manage their on-demand workers. There are 3 main parts to this. One, Upwork is expanding its employer of record status to all businesses. Employer of record status indemnifies businesses from misclassification risk and the inherent punitive fines and back taxes, creating a situation where managers “don’t get fired for choosing Upwork”. Two, Upwork is expanding its payrolling solution. The expansion of the payrolling solution creates a centralized global offering for businesses to pay independent workers in 160 countries. A payrolling solution with escrow protection provides value by ensuring that businesses only pay for completed work, and on demand workers get paid on time and in full. A recent product initiative, Direct Contracts, enables escrow protection of on demand workers outside of the Upwork marketplace. Upwork’s position in the middle of payment flow naturally pulls users onto the marketplace as Upwork provides a distribution relationship where they bring value to both parties. Three, Upwork is expanding analytics and reporting functionality for productivity, compliance, and risk controls. Increased functionality further ingrains Upwork in enterprise workflow as it becomes the single pane of glass for managing on demand workers.
These three steps in the path to increased enterprise usage create value by changing the way enterprises utilize on demand workers. As enterprise customers utilize Upwork’s platform to vet experienced talent to create their virtual talent bench, the benefits of greater control and flexibility to dynamically manage their cost base and flex operations as they scale becomes ingrained in their way of doing business. As younger generations that are twice as likely to engage remote workers in an on-demand capacity ascend to managerial roles with hiring and decision-making authority, the secular trend of increasing on demand worker utilization only grows stronger. While the strategic initiatives and secular trends push the business forward, Upwork’s significant growth investments that are being expensed as Research and Development, and Sales and Marketing on the income statement paint a picture far different than the run rate profitability both currently and at scale. With a current marketplace gross services volume of $2.7 billion and a contingent work addressable market worth upwards of $500 billion in gross services volume today, we see a long runway for Upwork’s global scale to drive transformation of on demand labor usage to reduce frictional inefficiencies in the labor market and create meaningful shareholder value.”
1. Shutterstock, Inc. (NYSE:SSTK)
Kent Lake Capital’s Stake Value: $26,029,000
Percentage of Kent Lake Capital’s 13F Portfolio: 11.19%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 19
Shutterstock, Inc. (NYSE:SSTK) is the largest holding in Benjamin Natter’s Q3 portfolio, representing 11.19% of Kent Lake Capital’s total investments. Natter owns a $26 million position in Shutterstock, Inc. (NYSE:SSTK), which is a company offering royalty-free stock photos, illustrations, vector graphics, stock footage, stock music, and editing tools.
As of the third quarter, 19 hedge funds reported owning stakes in Shutterstock, Inc. (NYSE:SSTK), worth $234.6 million. The largest stakeholder of the company is Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies, with over 1 million shares valued at $113.8 million.
Shutterstock, Inc. (NYSE:SSTK) posted its Q3 results on October 26. EPS in the period totaled $0.70, beating estimated EPS by $0.12. Revenue for the third quarter came in at $194.44 million, up 17.68% year-over-year.
Following the Q3 earnings beat, Needham analyst Bernie McTernan on October 27 raised the price target on Shutterstock, Inc. (NYSE:SSTK) to $145 from $120 and kept a Buy rating on the shares.
Here is what Bernzott Capital Advisors has to say about Shutterstock, Inc. (NYSE:SSTK) in its Q3 2021 investor letter:
“Shutterstock (SSTK): This market share-gaining provider of stock media continues to report solid earnings with gains in its subscription business. It recently formed Shutterstock.AI following the acquisition of several small businesses, and this effort holds promise for advances in data-driven insight and predictive performance.”
You can also take a look at Cathie Wood Stock Portfolio: 10 Newest Stock Picks This Year and Martin Taylor’s Crake Asset Management Portfolio: Top 10 Stock Picks.
