Jana Partners has launched another activist campaign.
The hedge fund headed by Barry Rosenstein disclosed late Thursday that it owned nearly 10 percent of the shares of pet food company Freshpet.
The stock dropped slightly on Friday, a day in which the wider market suffered a sharp selloff. In a regulatory filing, Jana urged the company to make changes to boost its stock price and to consider possibly selling the company.
Freshpet is among several pet-related companies whose stock prices have plummeted this year. In fact, Institutional Investor recently reported that Tiger Cub Woodson Capital Management had recently begun shorting many of these stocks, although it did not name specifics.
Freshpet is the latest among a number of Jana activist targets this year, several of which have worked out well for the hedge fund, which holds only eight different stocks.
Late last year, for example, Jana launched an aggressive campaign opposing Zendesk’s merger with Momentive, formerly SurveyMonkey, arguing that it was expensive and that Momentive did not fit strategically with Zendesk’s software-as-a-service products.
In mid-February, Jana launched a proxy fight, nominating four candidates to the board of directors. Nine days later Zendesk terminated the merger, noting that it had not received the approval of its shareholders.
Alas, Jana withdrew its nominees when Zendesk agreed to merge with private equity firms Hellman & Friedman and Permira. It then fully liquidated its position before the end of June.
It was a deal that wound up being publicly opposed by Light Street Capital Management, which argued that the company was worth more than its acquisition price of $77.50. The merger was approved by shareholders last week.
Jana had bought the bulk of its shares in the fourth quarter of 2021 when it initiated its stake. During that period, the stock traded in the $91 to $134 range.
In another activist win for the firm, private-label packaged foods company TreeHouse Foods agreed back in March to appoint two new independent directors to its board of directors. A month later, TreeHouse appointed Jana partner Scott Ostfeld to its board.
Jana owned nearly 9.2 percent of the company’s shares at the end of June, and TreeHouse was also the hedge fund’s largest position. The stock is up slightly this year, while the overall market is down about 25 percent.
Back in June, Jana also secured two board seats at New Relic, another software-as-a-service company, as part of a large board revamping. One month later, Reuters reported that the company was mulling a sale, possibly to a private equity firm.
Jana initiated its stake in New Relic in the first quarter and more than quadrupled its stake in the second quarter, paying between $44 and $60 per share, according to a regulatory filing, The stock closed Friday at $54.34 per share.
Jana has maintained a much lower profile since shuttering its Jana Partners and Jana Nirvana hedge funds in early 2019. It now manages longer lockup funds that are structured more similarly to private equity funds. The firm’s JSI Benchmark A portfolio gained 30 percent last year, while the Jana Strategic Investment fund was up 26 percent, according to Reuters.
Last year, Gordon Haskett Research Advisors named Jana “activist of the year.”
