March1,2021 BARRON’S M7
INSIDE SCOOP
SonosChairMikeVolpi
Buys$2MillioninShares
didn’t make Volpi available for com-
ment. Volpi has been a Sonos director
since March 2010, and chair since
November2010, both predating the
company’s initial public offering by
about eight years.
Volpi might have purchased shares
to meet stock-ownership guidelines.
He is a general partner of venture-cap-
ital firm Index Ventures, which was
an early investor in Sonos and one of
its largest shareholders. But Index
Ventures has been selling its Sonos
shares regularly since the IPO, and no
longer owned any as of Feb. 17.
Sonos requires nonemployee direc-
tors to own five times their annual
cash retainer in company stock. The
annual cash retainer in 2019 was
$50,000. However, in 2020, Sonos’
board agreed to forego cash retainers
for the second half of the year, citing
“uncertainty and challenges stemming
from the Covid-19 pandemic.”B
Sonos Chair Mike
Volpi bought $2
million of shares of
the wireless-
speaker maker.
The stock has
surged on strong
earnings and
upbeat guidance.
45.9% of Landos Biopharma’s out-
standing stock.
That amount includes 1,500,187
shares purchased from Feb. 5
through Feb. 9, at prices ranging
from $10.96 to $16.00. The remain-
der of Perceptive’s stake resulted
from the conversion of convertible
preferred securities into Landos
common immediately after the
company’s initial public offering
closed on Feb. 8.
Landos was brought to market
on Feb. 4 through an offering that
priced its shares at $16. Christopher
Garabedian, a portfolio manager at
Perceptive, serves on Landos’
board.
Terns Pharmaceuticals
(TERN)
ObriMed Advisorsdisclosed a
3,791,204-share position in the
newly public biopharmaceutical
firm.
OrbiMed purchased 475,000 of
those shares at $17 each through
Terns Pharmaceuticals’ IPO that
closed on Feb. 9. The balance of
OrbiMed’s stake resulted from the
automatic conversion of pre-IPO
preferred securities into Terns
Pharmaceuticals common. Orbi-
Med now holds 15.1% of the bio-
pharmaceutical company’s tradable
stock.
OrbiMed said in the regulatory
filing that it owns Terns shares “for
the purpose of making an invest-
ment in the Issuer and not with the
intention of acquiring control of the
Issuer’s business.”
Decreases
In Holdings
Turning Point Brands
(TPB)
Standard Generalcut its position
in the maker of alternative smoking
accessories and products by a third,
through a block trade. Standard
General sold 2,000,000 Turning
Point shares through a public offer-
ing that closed on Feb. 18 and that
priced the stock at $56. No reason
was cited for the divestment, which
leaves Standard General with
3,947,056 shares, a 20.7% interest
in Turning Point.
Activists
PressKohl’s
ForChange
POWER PLAY
S
onosstock is soaring, and
Chair Michelangelo “Mike”
Volpi just bought more
than 50,000 shares of the
maker of wireless speakers.
Sonos (ticker: SONO)
stock soared 49.7% last
year, and this year it has rocketed
nearlys 67%. A strong fiscal first-
quarter report and upbeat guidance
have fueled the rally. Solid sales sug-
gest that office workers stuck at home
decided late in 2020 to pay up for bet-
ter speakers.
Volpi paid $2 million on Feb. 19 for
53,666 Sonos shares, a per-share aver-
age price of $37.35, according to a form
he filed with the Securities and Ex-
change Commission. Volpi made the
purchase through a family trust, which
now owns 53,774 the company’s shares.
Sonos declined comment, and
BY ED LIN
A
n activist battle at
Kohl’s has Wall Street
believing that change
will soon come to the
embattled department-
store chain.
Kohl’s(ticker: KSS)
stock soared as much as 8% this
past Monday after a consortium of
activists unveiled a combined 9.5%
stake in the retailer and a slate of
nine candidates to overhaul the
company’s board. Kohl’s stock has
since given up some of those gains,
but Wall Street remains convinced
that, with activists lurking, the
chain will deliver a sorely needed
turnaround.
“The shareholder benefits in
this tug-of-war,” wrote BofA Secu-
rities’ Lorraine Hutchinson in a
note. She reiterated a Buy rating
on Kohl’s stock, and lifted her
price target to $70 from $60. Her
new target implies a roughly 30%
upside. Kohl’s has already been
working on some of the steps the
activist group wants, Hutchinson
noted, so improvement may hap-
pen faster.
The activists, which include
Macellum Advisors and Ancora
Holdings, began talking to Kohl’s
management as long ago as 2015,
according to regulatory filings.
They criticize what they see as lack-
luster sales and poor merchandising
and inventory management. Kohl’s
has had partnerships with Adidas,
Nike(NKE), andUnder Armour
(UAA), but they haven’t moved the
needle on sales, which in 2019 were
roughly where they were in 2011.
Wall Street hopes that the retailer’s
recently announced partnership
with Sephora will fare better.
Kohl’s said in a statement that
the activist battle threatens to dis-
rupt its momentum. It reports
earnings on Tuesday.B
BY CARLETON ENGLISH
Activist Holdings
Bausch Health (BHC)
Icahn Capitalreported last week a
fresh interest of 27,807,410 shares—
7.8% of the outstanding stock—of
the pharmaceutical company.
Icahn Capital also disclosed at
that time that it wanted to discuss
with Bausch “its ongoing strategic
review.” Icahn noted that any dis-
cussions might lead to board repre-
sentation.
On Feb. 23, Icahn Capital re-
vealed that it had reached an agree-
ment to appoint two Icahn represen-
tatives to Bausch’s board by mid-
March. The appointees include Carl
Icahn’s son, Brett Icahn, and portfolio
manager Steven Miller. Separately,
Bausch revealed through an exhibit
from its annual report dated Feb. 24
that it had implemented a Spinoff Bo-
nus Award to drive the spinoff of
Bausch + Lomb to be “operationally
separated” by or near the start of 2022.
Original Filings
Landos Biopharma (LABP)
Perceptive Advisorsreported a posi-
tion in the clinical-stage biopharma-
ceutical company of 17,960,839 shares,
These disclosures are
from 13Ds filed with
the Securities and
Exchange Commission.
13Ds are filed within
10 days of an entity’s
attaining more than
5% in any class of a
company’s securities.
Subsequent changes
in holdings or inten-
tions must be re-
ported in amended
filings. This material is
from Feb. 18 through
Feb. 24, 2021. Source:
InsiderScore.com