Will AMC’s Second Courtship Of Starz Lead To Another Media Merger, Or More Broken Hearts?

JANA Partners, led by Barry Rosenstein, and Horizon Asset Management, led by Murray Stahl, were among the major shareholders of Starz as of June 30, owning 7.59 million shares and 7.06 million shares, respectively. Napier Park Global Capital led the list of hedge funds initiating new positions in the company, as it add an 85,329-share position valued at $3.82 million to its portfolio. On the other hand, JAT Capital Partners and Madison Street Partners disposed of their entire stake in the entertainment firm during the second quarter. Insiders maintained a bearish outlook on the stock, with at least 54 insider sales in 2015. Christopher Albrecht, CEO of Starz, has sold a total of 341,689 shares of the company in 2015, including sales of 650 shares, 45,291 shares, and 47,855 shares, respectively, at the beginning of September.

The smart money opted to limit their exposure to AMC Networks Inc (NASDAQ:AMCX) during the second quarter, as the number of investors with long positions remained flat at 19, but, amid a 7% growth of the stock, the total value of the holdings of these funds declined to $407.94 million, equal to 6.90% of the company, from $447.30 million a quarter earlier.

Among the hedge funds that we track at Insider Monkey, Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors held 1.61 million shares of the company at the end of June, down by 8% on the quarter. On the other hand, Ken Griffin‘s Citadel Investment Group boosted its investment in the company by 61% to 651,718 shares.

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