November 22, 2021 BARRON’S 41
INSIDE SCOOP
AsMuskSells,UberCEO
Buys$9MillioninShares
lion unrealized pretax loss from its
stake in Chinese ride-sharing firm
DiDi Global(DIDI).
Khosrowshahi bought 200,000
shares at an average price of $44.92,
according to a filing with the Securities
and Exchange Commission. He now
owns about 1.18 million. It was his first
open-market purchase of shares since
he bought 250,000 in November 2019.
Uber didn’t return requests from
Barron’sseeking comment from the
company or the executive.
Khosrowshahi’s purchase helped
push Uber stock higher Tuesday, but
only fleetingly. Tesla stock (TSLA), on
the other hand, mostly held up as
Musk disclosed a series of stock sales,
after conducting a Twitter poll in
which users voted for him to sell 10%
of his stake. Keep in mind that he’s
also exercising expiring stock options,
so his sales ostensibly will help pay
options-related taxes.B
Uber Technologies
Chief Executive
Officer Dara
Khosrowshahi
added to his
ownershipof
the ride-sharing
company’s
struggling stock.
vealed that it is seeking the addi-
tion of independent directors,
unaffiliated with Trian, to Janus
Henderson’s board.
Trian Fund Management now
owns a 15.4% interest in Janus
Henderson.
Alpine Immune Sciences
(ALPN)
OrbiMed Advisorsrevealed on
Nov. 12 that it had raised its posi-
tion in the biopharmaceutical firm
by nearly a third, to 4,226,843
shares, including 145,251 shares
that underlie warrants.
On Sept. 17, OrbiMed bought
1,010,637 Alpine Immune shares
through a block trade at $9.40
apiece. The purchase marked a
reversal in direction for OrbiMed,
which had sold 600,000 Alpine
Immune shares last December
through a block trade at $14.25 per
share. OrbiMed now holds a 14.4%
interest in Alpine Immune’s out-
standing stock.
Decreases
In Holdings
Hain Celestial Group
(HAIN)
Engaged Capitalslashed its stake
in the organic food and beverage
company to 1,900,792 shares.
Engaged Capital sold 12,379,504
shares through an underwritten
offering that priced them at $45.50
a share on Nov. 15. Concurrently,
Hain Celestial repurchased
1.7 million shares from Engaged
Capital, also at the noted offering
price. Additionally, Engaged Capi-
tal distributed 50,000 Hain Celes-
tial shares to investors for no con-
sideration.
All told, Engaged Capital
dropped its interest in Hain to 2%,
which accounts for 33,698 shares
held by Engaged founder Glenn
Welling, who also serves on Hain’s
board of directors.
Engaged said that its large Hain
divestment was related to the “re-
quired wind-down” of five feeder
funds, and “not an indication of
[Engaged Capital’s] view on the
future prospects” of Hain Celestial
Group.
AnActivist
ShakesUp
DollarTree
POWER PLAY
T
eslaCEO Elon Musk’s stock
sales have investors buzzing
about corporate insider stock
transactions. But not every
transportation CEO is selling.
Uber Technologies(ticker:
UBER) CEO Dara Khosrowshahi
made a $9 million purchase of his
company’s shares on Monday. Though
the reopening has seen a recovery for
Uber’s ride-sharing business, the
stockhasstruggled,downsome14%
in 2021 and trading below its 2019
initial-public-offering price of $45.
Earlier this month, Uber reported
its first quarterly profit on adjusted
earnings before interest, taxes, depre-
ciation, and amortization, or Ebitda.
However, using generally accepted
accounting principles, it still posted a
net loss of $2.4 billion. The company
blamed the GAAP loss on a $3.2 bil-
By CONNOR SMITH
D
ollar Treehas seen its share
of activist shareholders, but
few have captured investor
excitement as quickly as
Mantle Ridge.
The investment firm, led by
Pershing Square alum Paul Hilal,
recently unveiled a $1.8 billion
stake in the discount retailer,
claiming in a regulatory filing that
shares were “undervalued.” It isn’t
the first activist to do so. Starboard
Value targeted the company in Jan-
uary 2019, only to back away three
months later after Dollar Tree
(ticker: DLTR) agreed to make
some changes.
Mantle Ridge appears to pack
more punch. Dollar Tree shares
were up over 19% for the week.
There are two likely reasons for the
excitement: First, Mantle Ridge is
known as a long-term investor that
normally focuses on a few positions
at a time. Second, the firm is work-
ing with Richard Dreiling, former
CEO ofDollar General(DG), who
is credited with laying the founda-
tion for that company’s success.
Over the past five years, Dollar
General’s shares are up 190% while
Dollar Tree’s have gained 63%—
with much of that run-up coming in
the past week. Dollar Tree suffered
from a troubled $9.2 billion acquisi-
tion of Family Dollar in 2015. It isn’t
yet known what Dreiling and Man-
tle Ridge have in mind; Dreiling at
Dollar General had once tried to
buy Family Dollar. The window for
nominating directors to the board
opens on Nov. 24.
Dollar Tree says it’s open to lis-
tening to investor ideas and working
with Mantle Ridge. “We would eval-
uate any ideas for constructive value
creation, with the best interests of all
our shareholders and stakeholders
in mind,” says company representa-
tive Randy Guiler.B
By CARLETON ENGLISH
Original Filings
Bird Global(BRDS)
Sequoia Capitalrevealed a posi-
tion of 12,304,430 shares in Bird
Global, an e-scooter and e-bike
manufacturer. The stake resulted
from the automatic conversion of
convertible preferred securities
into common stock on Nov. 4.
On Nov. 5, Bird Rides closed its
merger with Switchback II, a spe-
cial-purpose acquisition firm, or
SPAC, to create Bird Global. Se-
quoia Capital is represented on
Bird Global’s board by managing
partner Roelof Botha.
Increases
In Holdings
Janus Henderson Group
(JHG)
Trian Fund Managementincreased
its stake in the asset manager to
26,321,193 shares. Trian purchased
1,714,291 Janus Henderson shares
from Oct. 5 to Nov. 15 at prices rang-
ing from $41.63 to $47.54. Trian dis-
closed that it “continues to engage in
discussions with the board and/or
managementof[JanusHenderson]
regarding various strategic and oper-
ational initiatives.” Trian also re-
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 Nov. 11 through
Nov. 17, 2021. Source:
InsiderScore.com