Billionaire Mario Gabelli Discloses Two Big Moves In Small Companies

Billionaire Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors has been quite active this week. On Thursday, the fund disclosed with the SEC two big moves in the equity market.

On the one hand, GAMCO declared having closed out its position in Rally Software Development Corp RALY, which comprised 1,524,729 shares as of June 18. The fund had started constructing an activist stake in the company in May, and had last disclosed ownership of 5.94 percent of the total shares outstanding.

However, the sale of this stock should not be interpreted as a bearish signal. In fact, what happened is that the small-cap provider of cloud-based solutions was acquired by CA, Inc. CA for $480 million, or $19.50 per share. Rally’s stock stopped trading in the NYSE on Wednesday.

It is not clear, nonetheless, if the fund got CA stock for its Rally shares, of if the acquiring company purchased GAMCO’s stock.

Another move that Mr. Gabelli disclosed on Thursday is related to Bon-Ton Stores Inc BONT, a micro-cap department store operator that saw its stock climb almost 10 percent during the day. However, the fund’s move preceded the surge, actually taking place amid a depressed prices environment.

According to the filing, over the past couple of months, GAMCO trimmed its exposure to the company by 7.9 percent, disposing of more than 200K shares. The stock price fell more than 34 percent over this period.

Following these transactions, the investment management firm holds 2,307,652 shares of the company, which represent 12.82 percent of the outstanding stock.