ValueAct Capital Sells Allison Transmission Shares Back to Company

Jeff Ubben's activist firm ValueAct Capital recently announced an agreement with Allison Transmission (ALSN) to sell shares back to the company, per an 8-K filed with the SEC.

Allison will buy 10.52 million shares at a price of $34.50 per share and the transaction is expected to close tomorrow.  ValueAct will no longer own a stake and its member will not seek re-election on the board of directors. 

Just yesterday, we highlighted how ValueAct also sold some Microsoft (MSFT) shares.  Given these two sales, perhaps they're looking to put capital to work in another name?

Also worth noting: Ashe Capital Management, an owner of 6.1% of ALSN, just filed a 13D noting that they'd be nominating William Harker to the board of the company in absence of ValueAct's representative.

Per Google Finance, Allison Transmission "design and manufacture commercial and defense fully-automatic transmissions. The Company manufactures fully-automatic transmissions for medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles and medium-and heavy-tactical the United States defense vehicles. The Company operates through manufacture and distribution of fully-automatic transmissions segment. The Company's transmissions are used in a range of applications, including on-highway trucks (distribution, refuse, construction, fire and emergency), buses (primarily school, transit and hybrid-transit), motorhomes, off-highway vehicles and equipment (energy, mining and construction) and defense vehicles (wheeled and tracked). The Company's transmissions are sold under the Allison Transmission brand name and remanufactured transmissions are sold under the ReTran brand name. The Company has developed over 100 different models that are used in over 2,500 different vehicle configurations."

ValueAct Capital Reduces Allison Transmission Stake

Jeff Ubben's activist investment firm ValueAct Capital has filed a 13D with the SEC regarding its position in Allison Transmission (ALSN).  Per the filing, ValueAct now owns 6.4% of ALSN with 10.52 million shares.

Per a separately filed Form 4, they sold 2.9 million shares on November 17th at $31.78 and sold an additional 1.4 million shares on November 21st at $32.34.  After these sales, ValueAct still owns 10.52 million shares.

This is the second time ValueAct has trimmed its Allison Transmission stake in recent months.

Per Google Finance, Allison Transmission is "design and manufacture commercial and defense fully-automatic transmissions. The Company manufactures fully-automatic transmissions for medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles and medium-and heavy-tactical the United States defense vehicles. The Company operates through manufacture and distribution of fully-automatic transmissions segment. The Company's transmissions are used in a range of applications, including on-highway trucks (distribution, refuse, construction, fire and emergency), buses (primarily school, transit and hybrid-transit), motorhomes, off-highway vehicles and equipment (energy, mining and construction) and defense vehicles (wheeled and tracked). The Company's transmissions are sold under the Allison Transmission brand name and remanufactured transmissions are sold under the ReTran brand name. The Company has developed over 100 different models that are used in over 2,500 different vehicle configurations." 

ValueAct Capital Buys More CBRE Group & Trinity Industries, Trims Allison Transmission

Jeff Ubben's activist firm ValueAct Capital has submitted three filings to the SEC regarding some of their portfolio positions.

ValueAct Buys More CBRE Group (CBG)

First, Ubben's investment firm has been out acquiring more shares of CBRE Group (CBG) per a Form 4 filed with the SEC.

On October 28th and 31st, as well as November 1st, ValueAct acquired over 2.21 million shares in total at prices of around $25.8x.  After all these buys, they now own over 36.83 million shares.  The filing also notes that a little over 600,000 of these shares were made as part of a 10b5-1 plan.  We've highlighted recently how ValueAct has been acquiring CBG shares.

For more on this firm, be sure to also check out Mason Morfit's presentation (he's a ValueAct partner) at the Sohn San Francisco conference.

Per Google Finance, CBRE Group is "a commercial real estate services and investment company.  It offers services to occupiers, owners, lenders and investors in office, retail, industrial, multifamily and other types of commercial real estate. It offers commercial real estate services under the CBRE brand name, investment management services under the CBRE Global Investors brand name and development services under the Trammell Crow Company brand name. It is focused on several competencies, including commercial property, corporate facilities, project and transaction management, tenant/occupier and property/agency leasing, capital markets solutions, real estate investment management, valuation, development services and proprietary research."


Acquired More Trinity Industries (TRN) Shares

Second, ValueAct has also filed an amended 13D on their position in Trinity Industries (TRN).  They were out buying TRN shares in August and September and that continued in October.

Per the filing, they acquired 2.9 million shares in October at prices ranging from $21.09 to $23.68.  ValueAct now owns 9.8% of Trinity Industries with over 14.92 million shares.

Per Google Finance, Trinity Industries is "a diversified industrial company that owns a range of businesses providing products and services to the energy, transportation, chemical and construction sectors. The Company's products and services include railcars and railcar parts; parts and steel components; the leasing, management and maintenance of railcars; highway products; aggregates; inland barges; structural wind towers; steel utility structures; storage and distribution containers, and trench shields and shoring products."


Trimmed Allison Transmission (ALSN) Stake

Lastly, in an amended 13D regarding its position in Allison Transmission (ALSN), ValueAct has trimmed their stake in the company and now own 9% of ALSN with 14.82 million shares.

This is down from the 19.12 million shares they owned at the end of the second quarter.  The filing was made due to activity on October 27th and notes they sold 4.3 million shares at $28.20 per share.

For more on this firm, we posted up some other recent portfolio activity from ValueAct here.

Per Google Finance, Allison Transmission is "design and manufacture commercial and defense fully-automatic transmissions. The Company manufactures fully-automatic transmissions for medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles and medium-and heavy-tactical the United States defense vehicles. The Company operates through manufacture and distribution of fully-automatic transmissions segment. The Company's transmissions are used in a range of applications, including on-highway trucks (distribution, refuse, construction, fire and emergency), buses (primarily school, transit and hybrid-transit), motorhomes, off-highway vehicles and equipment (energy, mining and construction) and defense vehicles (wheeled and tracked). The Company's transmissions are sold under the Allison Transmission brand name and remanufactured transmissions are sold under the ReTran brand name. The Company has developed over 100 different models that are used in over 2,500 different vehicle configurations."

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It features equity analysis on two popular hedge fund bets: Allison Transmission (ALSN) and Armstrong World Industries (AWI).  It also shows you our newsletter format with consensus buy/sell lists, individual manager commentary, and of course the 13F filing summaries.




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ValueAct Again Buys Allison Transmission Shares

Jeff Ubben's activist firm ValueAct Capital has filed yet another Form 4 with the SEC regarding their stake in Allison Transmission (ALSN).  Per the filing, ValueAct has purchased an additional 200,000 ALSN shares.

They were buying on October 10th at around $27.62 and October 13th around $27.09.  In total, their position size is now over 19.05 million shares.

As we've highlighted previously, the most recent issue of our Hedge Fund Wisdom newsletter analyzed ALSN if you want to read up on the bull/bear thesis.

ValueAct Buys More Allison Transmission

Earlier this week, we highlighted that Jeff Ubben's hedge fund firm ValueAct Capital was out buying some Allison Transmission (ALSN).  With the recent market weakness, that trend continued over the past few days.

Per a Form 4 filed with the SEC, ValueAct Capital has disclosed they've purchased 275,000 additional shares of ALSN at prices ranging from $27.64 to $27.86 on October 7th, 8th, 9th.  After these buys, they now own 18.85 million ALSN shares.

ALSN was just featured in the equity analysis section of our Hedge Fund Wisdom newsletter recently.  Sign up here to immediately catch up on the name and the investment thesis.

ValueAct Capital Adds To Allison Transmission Holdings

Jeff Ubben's activist hedge fund firm ValueAct Capital has filed a Form 4 with the SEC regarding their stake in Allison Transmission (ALSN).  Per the filing, ValueAct has upped its stake due to portfolio activity in the first three days of October.

ValueAct bought a total of 550,000 shares at prices ranging from $28.07 to $28.43.  After these purchases, Ubben's firm now owns over 18.575 million shares of Allison Transmission.

ALSN was analyzed in the most recent issue of our Hedge Fund Wisdom newsletter.  Catch up on the investment thesis quickly by signing up to see why ValueAct is attracted to it.