July 12, 2021 BARRON’S M7
INSIDE SCOOP
FormerLearCEOBuysUp
Self-Driving-CarStock
On July 2, Simoncini paid $500,000
for 22,727 Luminar shares, a per share
average price of $22 each. According
to a form he filed with the Securities
and Exchange Commission, Simoncini
now owns the equivalent of 31,833
Luminar shares, including restricted
stock units acquired from his service
as a director.
Luminar said that Simoncini, a
former CEO of automotive-technology
firm Lear (LEA), wasn’t available for
comment. Luminar said his stock pur-
chase shows “continued support for
the company.” Simoncini joined the
Luminar board in December.
On June 25, Baird analyst Tristan
Gerra upgraded Luminar stock to
Outperform from Neutral and lifted
the target price to $30 from $22.
Shares are “poised to outperform
peers this year, as Luminar is well
positioned to upward-revise its order
book,” Gerra wrote.B
With Luminar’s
Mexico plant
gearing up for
commercial
production of its
lidar sensors,
director Matthew
Simoncini bought
up shares.
Bright Health Group(BHG)
Greenspring Associates reported
a new investment in the health
insurer and clinic operator of
43,595,931 shares. Of those Bright
Health shares, 555,555 were bought
through Bright Health’s initial pub-
lic offering that hit the market
priced at $18 each. The balance of
Greenspring’s Bright Health stake
resulted from the conversion of
pre-IPO preferred securities into
Bright Health common stock. After
the IPO closed on June 28, Green-
spring owned a 7.1% interest in
Bright Health.
Increases in
Holdings
Larimar Therapeutics
(LRMR)
Deerfield Management lifted
its stake in the clinical-stage bio-
pharmaceutical firm by 685,710
shares. Deerfield bought those
shares on June 30 through Lari-
mar’s at-the-market, or ATM, offer-
ing at a price of $8.75 apiece. That
fresh investment raised Deerfield’s
interest in Larimar to 33%, or
5,836,243 shares, which include
5,994 shares that underlie exercis-
able options.
Decreases in
Holdings
SLM(SLM)
ValueActCapital reportedalower
positionintheproviderofeduca-
tionalloansto 19 ,5 79 ,254shares.
Withoutcitingareason,ValueAct
soldacombined4, 215 ,0 00 SLM
sharesfromMay 14 throughJuly 2
atpersharepricesrangingfrom
$19. 75 to$21.22.Afterthesales,
ValueActowns6%ofSLM’strad-
ablestock.ValueActreducedits
SLMstakeearlierthisyear.Itfirst
tendered2.5millionSLMsharesina
Dutchauctionat$16. 50 eachon
March12.ThenfromApril 23
throughMay 11 ,ValueActsoldan-
other2.5millionSLMsharesonthe
openmarketatper-shareprices
rangingfrom$19. 20 to$20. 61 ..
BoxDigsIn
Aheadof
ProxyFight
POWER PLAY
L
uminar Technologies
stock has fallen sharply this
year, but director Matthew
Simoncini recently bought a
large block of shares of the
developer of technology to
enable self-driving cars.
Luminar (ticker: LAZR) stock has
tumbled about 40% so far this year,
compared with a 16% rise in the S&P
500 index. Luminar shares went pub-
lic after the company merged with a
special-purpose acquisition company
in December. The company makes
so-called lidar sensors that use lasers
to measure the surroundings of auton-
omous vehicles. Earlier this year, Lu-
minar’s Mexico plant began producing
samples of its sensors, and the plant
could make them on a commercial
scale by the end of 2022. Wall Street
seems upbeat on the technology.
By ED LIN
T
he battle between Box and
Starboard Value entered a
new phase this past week as
the cloud company urged
investors to re-elect its directors at
the annual meeting set for later this
summer.
Box (ticker: BOX) claimed in
preliminary proxy filings that its
candidates, which include co-
founder and CEO Aaron Levie,
“outmatch” Starboard’s. The hedge
fund, meanwhile, has grown frus-
trated with the pace of change at
Box. Starboard initiated what had
been a friendly stake in Box in
2019, believing the shares were
undervalued. The two sides
reached a standstill agreement in
2020, which included adding three
members backed by Starboard to
Box’s board, but the relationship
began to sour ahead of the expira-
tion of the pact in April.
In December, Box claimed that
Starboard was pushing the com-
pany to sell itself or fire Levie.
Weeks later, Box initiated a strate-
gic review, which culminated in the
company deciding to sell a $500
million stake in itself to private-eq-
uity firm KKR (KKR). The pro-
ceeds of the sale are expected to be
used to repurchase shares—a move
Starboard has said was done to
“buy votes and buy friendly board
representation” ahead of a proxy
contest.
Starboard has a reputation for
its long engagements with compa-
nies. In recent years it has won
board seats at Marvell Technol-
ogy (MRVL) and NortonLifeLock
(NLOK), and Starboard representa-
tives at both of those companies are
also directors at Box.
While Starboard has not yet
issued its latest salvo, this battle
isn’t likely to cool down soon.B
By CARLETON ENGLISH
Activist Holdings
J.Alexander’sHoldings
(JAX)
AncoraAdvisors discloseda7.5%
interestintheupscaledining-chain
operator,equalto1,133,30 5 shares.
AncoraAdvisorsenteredavoting
agreementwithSPBHospitality
onJuly 2 ,agreeingtovoteallofits
J.Alexander’ssharesinfavorof
SPB’sproposaltoacquireallofJ.
Alexanderfor$1 4 persharein
cash.Thedealisexpectedtoclose
beforetheendofthisyear,though
J.Alexander’sshareholdersstill
mustvoteonthedeal.
Original Filings
SykesEnterprises(SYKE)
MagnetarCapital initiatedaposition
of2,389,^480 sharesintheprovider
ofcontractcustomer-management
services.That 6 %interestinSykes
EnterpriseswaspurchasedfromJune
18 throughJune 30 atpricesranging
from$53.30to$53.8 2 pershare.Mag-
netardisclosedthatitcompletedthe
freshinvestmentinSykestoreceive
thecashconsiderationof$54per
SykesshareproposedbySitelGroup
lastmonth.The$2.2billiondealis
expectedtocloselaterinthesecond
halfofthisyear.
Thesedisclosuresare
from13Dsfiledwith
theSecuritiesandExchangeCommission.
13Dsarefiledwithin
10 daysofanentity’s
attainingmorethan
5%inanyclassofa
company’ssecurities.
Subsequentchanges
inholdingsorinten-
tionsmustbere-
portedinamended
filings.Thismaterialis
fromJuly 1 through
July7, 2021 .Source:
InsiderScore.com