Harbinger Continues Cablevision Sell-off
Hedge Fund Reduces Holdings To 5%
Mike Farrell -- Multichannel News, 2/17/2009 6:18:00 PM
Harbinger Capital, the hedge fund that caused a stir last year when it began buying large blocks of Cablevision Systems shares, continued a sell-off of the stock that began earlier this year, reducing its holdings in the Bethpage, N.Y.-based cable operator to 5%.
Harbinger, seen by many observers to be the main catalyst in Cablevision management's newfound openness with shareholders, said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing late Tuesday that it had reduced its holdings in the cable operator to 11.7 million shares, or about 5% of its outstanding stock. That's down from the 7.5% interest Harbinger held in Cablevision in January and almost half the 9.1% interest the hedge fund controlled in September.
Last July, Cablevision CEO James Dolan announced during a third-quarter conference call with analysts that the company would look for ways to close the valuation gap in its stock, which many investors took to mean asset sales were imminent. That speculation, and moves by Cablevision to initiate a quarterly dividend - caused a huge run up in the stock in August. During that month, Cablevision shares rose as high as $32.56 per share -- a 53% increase from its $21.25 price on July 30.
The stock has fallen back to earth with the rest of the market as the banking crisis and the recession has weighed heavily on stocks. On Tuesday, Cablevision shares were down 90 cents each (6.5%) to $13 per share.
According to the SEC filing, Harbinger sold 3 million shares of cablevision stock between Feb, 6 and Feb, 13 at prices ranging from $13.87 to $15.42 per share. In contrast, the hedge fund bought about 5.3 million shares in August at process ranging from $29.81 per share to $31.79 per share.
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