George Soros‘ Soros Fund Management increased its activist stake in Penn Virginia Corporation (NYSE:PVA). The fund now holds slightly more than 6.00 million shares of Penn Virginia – approximately 9.18% of the company’s common stock, after purchasing 670,000 shares for a total price of $8.71 million, and selling 165,000 shares at $11.92 per unit.
According to the filing, Soros believes Penn Virginia Corporation (NYSE:PVA) is undervalued and represents an attractive investment opportunity. Moreover, he considers that the company has been very well managed and that the financial incentives for its management team should be enhanced, but mentioned that Penn should explore strategic alternatives as a means to enhance or maximize shareholder value and intends discuss the matters with the company’s management and/or Board of Directors.
With a market capitalization of nearly $1.00 billion, Penn Virginia Corporation (NYSE:PVA) is a major Crude Petroleum & Natural Gas company. Penn deals primarily with natural gas, which represents 82 percent of its energy reserves. The company has been generating losses in the past 4 years, with a loss of $143.07 million in fiscal year 2013. Recently the expectations for the stock have been upgraded, analysts providing a mean recommendation of “Overweight”, due to steady revenue growth that exceeds the industry average of 3.1% and increased earnings per share. The company is expected to generate $0.11 earnings per share this year, a great improvement with respect to the losses of $2.36 per share sustained in 2013 and trades at a Forward P/E of 25.xx
In the recent news, Ken Griffin‘s Citadel Investment Group cut its holdings of Penn Virginia Corporation (PVA) to 2.96 million shares, but later revealed an increased position of 5.55 million shares. Another significant shareholder of Penn Virginia is Charles Davidson‘s Wexford Capital.
Soros Fund Management holds a quite diversified equity portfolio valued at $11.77 billion, with 25% of the portfolio represented by investments in the Technology Sector. The largest long position in the portfolio consists of 9.32 million shares in Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:TEVA), worth $373.39 million – a share of 3.18% in the total value of the portfolio.
Disclosure: none
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