Coghill Capital Sells Some Autobytel Shares - InvestingChannel

Coghill Capital Sells Some Autobytel Shares

Clint Coghill‘s hedge fund, Coghill Capital Management has sold a total of 174,879 shares of Autobytel Inc. (NASDAQ:ABTL), a filing with the SEC revealed. The shares have been disposed in three transactions, the average price amounting to $10.92 apiece. Following the deals, Coghill holds 987,458 shares of Autobytel.

Autobytel logo

Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies has, on the other hand, been buying Autobytel shares. During the third quarter of 2013, Renaissance increased their position from 237K to 328K shares, with the current stake reportedly worth approximately $2.3 million. Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, has closed their position in Autobytel. At the end of Q3, the fund has reported selling the 215K shares previously owned. Mark A. Nordlicht’s Platinum Management is another fund that has given up hope and liquidated their position in Autobytel. Platinum Management previously owned 80,000 shares.

For the third quarter, Autobytel reported a 24% increase in revenues to $21.6 million. The company also reported Earnings Per Share (EPS) of $0.13 per diluted share compared with the EPS of $0.06 per diluted share in the third quarter of 2012. Jeffrey H. Coats, President and Chief Executive Officer, said:

We are continuing to execute on our strategic initiatives, including generating high sales conversion rates for our customers from the leads we deliver to them. Our strong revenue for the third quarter, combined with appropriate cost management, allowed Autobytel to post a significant improvement in our financial results compared with last year.

Coats also reported steps taken by the company to expand into the mobile market:

“We recently completed the acquisition of Advanced Mobile, a leader in providing mobile technologies to the automotive industry. We are excited to be able to provide dealers with a new way to engage with car shoppers through mobile devices, at the time, place and in a manner preferred by consumers.

Autobytel specializes in providing marketing assistance to auto dealers and manufacturers. The company currently has a market cap of 96.2 million with shares trading at $10.80. They have a trailing Price to Earnings (P/E) ratio of 43.04 and a beta of 1.82, making the stock a fairly volatile one. Autobytel does not pay a dividend.

Disclosure: none

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