What Chuck Royce bought and sold in the second quarter
Legendary small-cap investor Chuck Royce’s Royce Pennsylvania Mutual Fund added 54 new positions in the second quarter and fully exited nearly 70 holdings. Royce is regarded as a pioneer in small-cap investing: more than half a century ago, he was among the first on Wall Street to focus on companies with smaller market capitalizations. Whereas Warren Buffett began investing before the S&P 500 index existed, Chuck Royce started a decade before the Russell 2000 was launched.
What Royce bought
During the second quarter, Royce took positions in 54 new stocks. The three largest additions were as follows.
Graphic Packaging Holding Co.: Purchased 1,076,587 shares of the packaging manufacturer, valued at $22.68 million. The company has a market capitalization of about $6.7 billion. The position accounts for 0.23% of the portfolio and ranks as the eighth-largest holding, according to GuruFocus. Yesterday, August 14, the stock closed at $22.63 per share.
Repligen Corp.: Acquired 89,522 shares of the maker of consumables and equipment for biologics production, worth $11.13 million. The company’s market capitalization is approximately $7.12 billion. The position represents 0.11% of the portfolio. Yesterday, shares closed at $126.64 per share; in morning trading today, they are up about 0.6% as of this writing.
Douglas Dynamics Inc.: Bought 317,433 shares of the truck attachments manufacturer, valued at $9.35 million. The company’s market capitalization on the New York Stock Exchange is about $736.8 million. The stock closed at $31.98 per share yesterday. The position represents roughly 0.10% of the portfolio.
The Royce fund also increased stakes in 325 holdings. The most notable increases, according to GuruFocus, were in investment bank Evercore Inc. (with the number of shares held up 327%), and Installed Building Products Inc., which installs insulation, garage doors, shower enclosures, and other products for homes, up 54%.
What Royce sold
Royce fully exited 69 positions in the second quarter, the largest being the two sales listed below.
Faro Technologies: Sold 1,053,329 shares of the developer of visualization products and solutions for the construction and surveying industries. The position accounted for 0.31% of Royce’s portfolio and ranked fourth in size. In May, Faro announced it would be acquired at a premium by appliance maker Ametek, and in July it confirmed the deal had closed.
Fabrinet: Sold 64,555 shares of the manufacturer of electro-optical modules, which has a market capitalization of about $11.6 billion on the NYSE. At the close yesterday, the stock was priced at $322 per share. According to GuruFocus, the position accounted for 0.14% of the portfolio.
Royce also reduced stakes in 318 other stocks. Among the largest reductions, writes GuruFocus, were a nearly 60% cut to real estate investment firm Kennedy-Wilson Holdings and a 30% reduction in aircraft leasing company Air Lease Corporation.
The AI translation of this story was reviewed by a human editor.
