Major Hedge Funds Are Bullish On Baxter International And Layne Christensen

Dan Loeb

On Wednesday morning, Dan Loeb’s Third Point LLC disclosed yet another increase in its exposure to Baxter International. After adding 1.35 million shares of Common Stock to its holdings, the fund holds 53,850,000 shares of the company, representing 9.9 percent of the total shares outstanding.

The firm has been boosting its stake in the diversified healthcare company over all of the third quarter. By the end of the second quarter of the year, Third Point held only 4,850,600 shares of the company. However, by August 5, it declared holding 37,925,000.

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Holding more than 53 million shares, Third Point is the largest institutional investor in Baxter, trailed by the Vanguard Group, which last disclosed ownership of 30,761,766 shares. Among hedge funds, the second largest shareholder, after Third Point, is James Dinan’s York Capital Management Global Advisors, with 8,227,769 shares.

Mario Gabelli

On Tuesday, Mario Gabelli and the funds affiliated with him (GAMCO, Gabelli Funds, Teton Advisors, GSI, the Gabelli Foundation and GBL) disclosed holding an aggregate of 2,122,437 shares of Layne Christensen, representing more than 10.7 percent of the total shares outstanding. The position represents a 50 percent increase in the funds’ stake, which stood at 1,415,250 shares as of the end of the second quarter of the year.

The only institutional investor with a larger bet placed on Layne Christensen is Van Der Berg Management, which disclosed ownership of 2,774,710 shares on August 19. Among hedge funds, two others stand out for their stakes, comprising 2,183,181 shares and 1,429,604, respectively. These are Peter Schliemann’s Rutabaga Capital Management and Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates, correspondingly.

Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any of the securities mentioned above.