Starboard Boosts Stake In ODP And SPLS: What Other Hedge Funds Are Invested In These Office Supply Retailers?

Activist fund Starboard Value LP, run by Jeffrey Smith, disclosed on Thursday a new position in Staples, Inc. SPLS. The stake comprises about 32.3 million shares, which represent about 6 percent of the company’s stock. In addition, the fund augmented its exposure to Office Depot Inc ODP by 7 million shares, taking its holdings to 53.3 million shares, or roughly 10 percent of the company’s outstanding stock.

Some analysts speculate with the idea of Starboard betting on a merger of these two companies, especially as both have been witnessing declining sales and market share, at the expense of other retailers like Wal-Mart, Target and Amazon.com.

In spite of this possible merger, most Wall Street research firms don’t see plenty of upside left for either Staples or Office Depot (see ratings and price targets). Nonetheless, several major hedge funds still seem quite bullish on these companies.

Other Funds

Not only Jeffrey Smith is confident on these companies’ futures. Another major hedge fund betting on both these specialty retailers is Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group. This fund owns about 1.2 million shares of Staples and 2.2 million shares of Office Depot. These stakes have a combined market value of roughly $27 million.

Two more funds with big wages on these businesses are Adage Capital Management and Millennium Management. Adage owns 970,100 Staples shares and 2.5 million Office Depot shares, while Millennium holds 834,063 Staples shares and almost 3 million Office Depot shares.