Why Healthways, Triumph, Sothebys, Franks International, and Tempur Sealy Are Making Thursday Moves

Chinese Co. Discloses Activist Stake In Sothebys

Shares of Sothebys (NYSE:BID) are trading up by about 5% on Thursday after Taikang Life Insurance disclosed a 13.52% stake in the company. With slightly less than a $250 million in stock, 7.918 million shares in total, the Chinese company became the largest institutional shareholder of the company on record, displacing Dan Loeb’s Third Point, which had disclosed ownership of 6.66 million shares as of March 31. It has been reported that Taikang has already adopted an activist position, having offered some suggestions for the Board. On top of Third Point, another 21 funds in our database were long Sothebys (NYSE:BID) at the end of the first quarter. Their combined stakes accounted for almost 35% of the company’s float at the time.

Franks Falls On Frustrating Figures

Back to decliners, we’ve got Franks International NV (NYSE:FI), which has slipped by more than 17.3% today after the release of what has been described as “terrible” results. For its second quarter, the small-cap provider of engineered tubular services posted a net loss of $0.14 per share, $0.13 worse than anticipated. Its top-line performance wasn’t much better, as revenue of $120.9 million, down by 52.5% year-over-year, missed the consensus estimate by $19.1 million. In addition, management announced a halving of the stock’s quarterly dividend payment, from $0.15 per share to $0.075 per share, as demand for the company’s products continues to fall, especially offshore.

Negative news aside, Franks International NV (NYSE:FI) saw the number of funds in our database long its stock surge by 50% over the first quarter, to 15. One of the main stockholders on March 31 was D E Shaw, which held 543,209 shares of the company.

Strong Results Push Tempur Sealy Up

Finally, there’s Tempur Sealy International Inc (NYSE:TPX), which has risen by more than 15% since the bell rang this morning after reporting second quarter EPS of $0.92, a full $0.23 above the Street’s consensus estimate, on revenue of $804.4 million, which was $19 million higher than expected. 33 funds in our database held $1.21 billion worth of Tempur Sealy International Inc (NYSE:TPX) shares at the end of March. The largest institutional shareholder of record at the time was Rehan Jaffer’s H Partners Management, which owned 7.00 million shares worth about $425 million.

Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no interest in any of the securities or entities mentioned in this article.