Solus Alternative Asset Management, YRC Worldwide: In a new form 4, Solus Alternative Asset Management, led by Christopher Pucillo, disclosed selling 95,916 shares of its stake in YRC Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:YRCW). The shares have been sold in one transaction, the price amounting to $11.55 apiece. Following the transaction, Solus holds 548,336 shares of the company.

Last Thursday, Solus also reported selling shares of YRC Worldwide, reducing its position by some 137,300 shares.

Disclosure: none

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Dole Food Company: Merion Investment Reports an 8.3% Passive Stake

Lone Star Reports Holding 2.9 Mln Shares of NTS Inc

Jeff Smith, Starboard Value Increase Exposure to TriQuint Semiconductor

Dole Food Company, Merion Investment: Just now, Merion Investment Management disclosed a passive stake in Dole Food Company Inc (NYSE:DOLE), which represents 8.3% of the company. According to the filing, Merion Investment Management owns over 7.5 million shares of Dole.

Disclosure: none

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Lone Star Reports Holding 2.9 Mln Shares of NTS Inc

Jeff Smith, Starboard Value Increase Exposure to TriQuint Semiconductor

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Lone Star, NTS:  Lone Star Value Management, in a newly amended 13D filing, disclosed holding some 2.9 million shares of NTS Inc (NYSEMKT:NTS). The stake represents almost 7% of the company.

Disclosure: none

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Jeff Smith, Starboard Value Increase Exposure to TriQuint Semiconductor

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Stephen Mandel, Lone Pine Capital Boost Stake In The Gap to 5.4%

Starboard Value, TriQuint Semiconductor: In an amended 13D filed a couple of minutes ago, Jeff Smith’s Staboard Value reported boosting its position in TriQuint Semiconductor (NASDAQ:TQNT) to around 12.5 million shares, which represent 8% of the company. In a previous filing, Staboard disclosed holding 9.8 million shares of the company.

Disclosure: none

Icahn, Talisman Energy: In a newly amended filing with the SEC, Carl Icahn reported raising his activist stake in Talisman Energy Inc. (USA) (NYSE:TLM) to 6.96% from 5.9% held at the beginning of October. Icahn initiated his position in the energy company earlier this month; he holds an aggregate amount of around 71.8 million shares.

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Lone Pine, Gap: Just now, Stephen Mandel‘s Lone Pine Capital, reported increasing its position in The Gap Inc. (NYSE:GPS) to some 25.1 million shares, from 19.2 million shares held previously. The new stake amasses 5.4% of Gap’s common stock.

Disclosure: none

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Prentice Capital Boosts Position in Delia's

Gagnon Securities Adds To Passive Stake in Christopher & Banks

Mario Gabelli Reports a 5.8% Stake in Mocon

dELiA*s, Prentice Capital Management: The stake of dELiA*s, Inc. (NASDAQ:DLIA) in the equity portfolio of Prentice Capital Management surged to over 6 million shares, a new filing with the SEC revealed. The position has been upped from around 2.5 million shares reported in an earlier filing. Following the increase, Prentice Capital Management, now holds 8.78% of the company’s common stock.

Disclosure: none

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North Tide Capital Increases Stake in Healthways to 9.9%

Dolphin Limited Discloses 6.5% Stake in Qumu Corp

Richard Blum Reduces ITT Educational Services Stake Again

Gagnon Securities, Christopher & Banks Corporation: In a new filing, Neil Gagnon’s Gagnon Securities reported increasing its passive position in Christopher & Banks Corporation (NYSE:CBK) to around 1.9 million shares, from 805,949 disclosed in its latest 13F form. The current stake held by Gagnon amasses some 5.2% of Christopher & Banks Corporation.

Disclosure: none

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Mario Gabelli Reports a 5.8% Stake in Mocon

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Mario Gabelli, Gamco, MOCON: Just now, Mario Gabelli and his fund Gamco Investors reported holding 323,926 shares of MOCON, Inc. (NASDAQ:MOCO). In this way, the disclosed stake represents 5.84% of the company. In its latest 13F, Gamco Investors stated ownining 30,190 shares of Mocon.

Disclosure: none

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North Tide Capital Increases Stake in Healthways to 9.9%

Dolphin Limited Discloses 6.5% Stake in Qumu Corp

Carl Icahn Sounds Off On Apple Again, Says He Won't Try To Remove Board of Directors

North Tide Capital, Healthways: North Tide Capital, managed by Conan Laughlin, disclosed increasing its exposure in Healthways, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWAY) by 1.1 million shares, according to a filing with the SEC from a couple of minutes ago. In this way, North Tide now holds 3.4 million shares of the company, in comparison with 2.3 million reported in its latest 13F filing. The current position represents around 9.9% of the company.

Disclosure: none

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Dolphin Limited Discloses 6.5% Stake in Qumu Corp

Richard Blum Reduces ITT Educational Services Stake Again

Carl Icahn Sounds Off On Apple Again, Says He Won't Try To Remove Board of Directors

Qumu Corp, Dolphin Limited Partnership: In a new 13D filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Dolphin Limited Partnership reported a 6.5% stake in Qumu Corp (NASDAQ:QUMU). The position held by Dolphin amasses 560,500 shares of the company and is worth almost $8.0 million, at the current stock price of the company.

Disclosure: none

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Helix Energy insider: Owen E. Kratz, President and CEO at Helix Energy Solutions Group Inc. (NYSE:HLX) purchased 50,000 shares of common stock late last week, at $23.05 each. However, this is a weighted average price, since the shares were purchased in multiple transactions at prices ranging from $22.95 to $23.12.

The $1,152,500 transaction brought Kratz' holding in the firm to 5,206,597 shares, valued at approximately $123,917,008. The CEO also has indirect holdings of 1,000,000 shares, since he is the general partner of Joss Investments Limited Partnership, the entity that controls the shares.

Helix Energy stock is currently trading at 2.8 times its sales, far above the industry standard of 1.8, and thus entailing a 55.5% price premium relative to its peers' average. The company has been delivering poor results recently, with a grim forward outlook due to declining EBITDA and negative return on capital.

Nevertheless, the announcement of third quarter results gave shareholders a reason to regain confidence. Mr. Kratz stated, "third quarter results increased due to top line growth and profitability in both the Well Intervention and Robotics businesses." He went on to explain, "Last month's announcement of the Q7000 newbuild is indicative of our confidence in the growing market demand for well intervention services.”

The latest insider purchase is Kratz's first transaction since 2011. Many expect the firm to regain its foothold following improved third quarter results, and displayed of confidence shown by the CEO's million dollar sign of good will. Either way stock price experienced a boost in value since Kratz's purchase, increasing by 3.7% from Thursday's initial transaction at $22.95 per share to Friday's current value of $23.80 per share. This increment in shareholder's value represents a huge reversal of the downwards trend the stock has been experiencing over the past month, and is bound to inspire trust in investors.

Disclosure: Pablo Erbar holds no position in any stocks mentioned

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You may own shares of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), but your shareholder vote doesn’t mean a whole heck of a lot. It shouldn’t surprise you to hear that, after all, Facebook is perfectly clear in its filings that its dual-class share structure gives 10 votes per share to B-class (insider) shareholders. Holders of the A shares get a measly single vote per share.

As put in Facebook’s 10-K:

Because of the ten-to-one voting ratio between our Class B and Class A common stock, the holders of our Class B common stock collectively control a majority of the combined voting power of our common stock and therefore are able to control all matters submitted to our stockholders for approval…

Not that it’s fair to pick on just Facebook. At Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), Larry, Sergey, and Eric own the lion’s share of the 10-votes-per-share B-class shares and effectively control the company through that ownership. Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA)  has three classes of stock, with C shares carrying a whopping 70 votes per share. Mark Pincus effectively controls that company through this tri-class structure.

And, really, we could continue down the list because there is no shortage of companies — particularly tech companies — that have this sort of multiple-class, “I own a little, but control most” share structure.

Now there are those who will argue vehemently in favor of this kind of setup. For instance, earlier this year, Andreessen Horowitz managing general partner Scott Kupor wrote for Forbes that “Dual Class Shares Are A Founder’s Best Friend.”

Kapur made some great points in his article, including:

Great founders of successful technology companies find and exploit product cycles — e.g., Jeff Bezos (Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) ), Bill Gates (Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) ), Steve Jobs (Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)) — to the benefit of long-term shareholder appreciation… Investing in a product cycle increases short-term R&D expenses and thus reduces near-term earnings. Short-term investors don’t like this — and generally can’t see what the innovator so plainly sees in the future.

In other words, tech company founder/CEOs need the protection of a dual-class share structure to protect themselves from marauders like Carl Icahn — see, for instance, the aforementioned’s current campaign targeting Apple. Without that protection, they’ll be beaten into short-term-focused mediocrity by outside investors.

That’s a reasonable argument. But if you’re considering investing in a company with a dual- (or tri) class share structure, consider this tidbit I recently picked up from Frank Partnoy’s The Match King: Ivar Kreuger, The Financial Genius Behind a Century of Wall Street Scandals: It was none other than the epic financial swindler Ivar Kreuger who introduced the use of dual-class share structures.

In the case of Kreuger, the thinking behind a dual-class structure was simple: He wanted investors’ money and he didn’t want there to be any risk of anyone else having enough power to question his crooked empire.

Blum Capital, ITT Educational Services: A couple of minutes ago, Richard Blum‘s fund Blum Capital Partners reported trimming its stake in ITT Educational Services, Inc. (NYSE:ESI) to around 2.3 million shares, from over 2.5 million shares disclosed in a filing from about two weeks ago. In this way, Blum now holds 9.8% of the company’s common stock, versus 10.8% reported earlier.

The latest move made by Blum into ITT Educational Services is the fourth cut this month. In this way, Blum significantly decreased its exposure in the company from some 3.3 million shares reported as at the end of the second quarter. Last week, ITT posted its results for the third quarter of 2013, showing a 17.6% decline in its revenue, which totaled $259.4 million. The net income slumped by almost 56% on the year to $18.9 million.

Select Equity Group, run by Robert Joseph Caruso also reported a stake in ITT Educational Services at the end of the second quarter. Its position contains slightly above 3.3 million.

Disclosure: none

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Carl Icahn, Apple: In what seems like a weekly ritual, Carl Icahn is sounding off on Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) once again. This time he’s talking to Fox about the company’s innovation, and how it could tie into his proposed $150 billion stock buyback plan.

Icahn’s full interview with FBN can be seen here, and Insider Monkey has obtained a transcript of the highlights:

On his proposal for Apple to launch a $150 billion stock buyback:

"Looking and studying these books and looking at the numbers, Apple, by giving back $150 billion, would be earnings that they have.  The free cash flow they have is close to $50 billion a year, okay?  They certainly could afford $5 or $6 billion of interest and not even notice it, relatively speaking.  I know it’s huge numbers.   So, they could certainly innovate as much as they want and still do this buyback.  And one has nothing to do with the other.  And by the way, I’m with Tim Cook.  I think he’s doing a good job.  I’m against what is going on financially.  I don’t think the board has any real understanding of it, and I don’t mean that in a bad way about the board.  I’m sure they’re not bad guys.   But what they should be doing — and it makes no sense not to take the money that Tim Cook has told me on several occasions, and I think told the world, that he believes this company is very undervalued.

Therefore, logically — I was good in school in logic — therefore, logically, if you have $ 150 billion or a lot of money, as I said — if you have a lot of money, you go out — I owned an oil well once, big oil well, and there was a partner.  The partner decided at the wrong time, you know, things weren’t going well, to go sell his share of the oil well.  And he gave them to me, and I thanked him for coming to me, because he had a deal with somebody, he said but if you want to bid higher, Carl, be my guest. Why can't we do the same with the Apple stock?"

On Apple's Board of Directors:

"I don’t respect many boards, and in this case I don’t respect what they’re doing here.  And the fact that they’re doing it doesn’t make it right.  In fact, the reason — and I, you know, I’m patting myself on the back here but to make a point.  The reason we’ve made 1400 percent since 2000 if you bought our stock is because we went against these kind of boards.  We went against them, and we got involved, and I can’t tell you how bad these companies are run, some of them.  Not all of them.  And even some companies we’ve gotten involved with like that, but we liked the board.  But my point to you is that to say that the board wants to do it, it's like the divine right of kings.  Is Henry VIII right in hanging all his wives or whatever he did?  Chopping their heads off, I guess."

On whether he wants to get rid of the board:

"No, no, no.  I’ve said it very plainly.  This is not a fight I could ever win, nor would I even try it."

On how he would exit from Herbalife:

"Well, let’s talk about exiting.  I mean, I think people have the wrong impression about my exit. I've held companies 15, 20 years…I like holding a lot of these companies, and I think Herbalife is a very undervalued company.  But I don’t look at it week to week, month to month, sometimes even year to year.  We hold things for many years.  I think Herbalife will continue to grow.  I think unlike some of the critics of Herbalife, I think it does make work for people.  I don’t think it hurts anybody.  Anybody that buys their product if they want it, you know, the poor Spanish woman that Ackman refers to you know, they could give it back.  They never do.  So they’re not losing."

On whether he could be in Herbalife for years: 

"I could.  I have no compunction the way Herbalife is going right now.  You know, I’m certainly not at liberty to talk about their earnings, and I’m not talking about them, and, in fact, I, frankly, I’m not sure what they are to begin with, but that’s not the issue.   You know, we have people on the people on the board and all that.  I’m talking generally, big picture.  Herbalife has a great model.  I think Herbalife actually, you know with all the criticism, you know, it is certainly not a pyramid scheme, in my opinion.  And I think it does make work for people that are out of work.  I mean it is absurd to say it doesn’t.  It is a way of retailing.  Why do you have to retail to food stores necessarily?  Why can’t you retail this way?"

On his Twitter war with PIMCO Founder and Co-CIO Bill Gross:

"I certainly respect Bill Gross, but it's a little fun. He's out there telling me what I should be doing and I'm saying to him if you're so into doing good and you're so into this, why don't you step up to the plate and join the Giving Pledge like I and Bill Gates – he's talking about Bill Gates as a great hero so I said follow him and join the Giving Pledge instead of just talking about how good you want to be and give half your money away like I did and like Bill Gates did. Talk is cheap, you know? But I am not against Bill Gross, I respect him. I think he's accomplished a lot. I don't own any PIMCO but I still think he's a smart guy. But I sort of take umbrage a little bit to him going out and taking a gratuitous lap."

On being called a greenmailer:

"I'd like to say something about the greenmail. That was in the eighties and I don't consider it something that I have to defend because the companies would come to us and would say one hand we're going to kill you, we're gonna murder you – I had no money then, relatively little money – and we're going to put you out of business and sue you forever or with the other hand here take it, we'll give you $20 million, it's their money. I never asked for it, they would come and give it to you. But obviously now that I have money I would never do it. I don't do it."

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Elkhorn Partners, Orbit International Corporation: Elkhorn Partners Limited Partnership, just now, reported boosting its position in Orbit International Corp. (NASDAQ:ORBT) to 22.4% of the company’s common stock. Elkhorn increased its exposure in Orbit International to around 1.02 million shares, compared to some 959,500 shares disclosed in its latest 13F.

At the current stock price of the company, the value of the position held by Elkhorn amounts to approximately $3.4 million.

Orbit International is engaged in the production of a variety of electrical components, conducting its operations through its division, Orbit Instrument, and several wholly-owned subsidiaries. Net earnings of the company halved in year-on year terms to $0.02 per diluted share in the second quarter of 2013.

Grt Capital Partners, led by Gregory Fraser, Rudolph Kluiber, and Timothy Kroch, and Jim Simons‘s Renaissance Technologies reported owning 26,105 shares, and 21,000 shares respectively at the end of the second quarter.

Disclosure: none

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On this day in economic and business history…

Oct. 28, 1929, the original Black Monday, is one of two days most identified with the Great Crash that wiped out a generation of stock market gains. That day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 13.5%, a decline only surpassed once in the index’s history. Different newspapers took diametrically different stances when reporting on the unprecedented collapse. The Los Angeles Times wrote of Wall Street “weed[ing] out speculative accounts and plac[ing] its house in order after the wild orgy of speculation … which has taken place in the last five years.” The Chicago Daily Tribune, however, gave full voice to the hysteria that had swept through the market:

The second hurricane of hysterical liquidation within four days hit the New York stock market today. It came suddenly and with awe inspiring violence, after holders of stocks had been lulled into a false sense of security by the rallies of Friday and Saturday.

It was a countrywide collapse of open market security values which in declines established and actual dollars and cents losses taken was probably the most far reaching in the history of the New York exchange.

It was calculated tonight that the total price shrinkage during the day in American securities on all exchanges had aggregated some 14 billion dollars.

More than 9 million shares were sold on Black Monday — then the second-largest total in history behind Black Thursday, the aforementioned first “hurricane of hysterical liquidation.” The estimated marketwide loss of $14 billion was worth nearly 15% of the national GDP, which makes it the largest single loss in GDP terms to this day — the more recent Black Monday of 1987 only saw a loss equal to 10% of GDP. Many Dow stocks suffered terribly. AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) lost $449 million in market value, General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) had $343 million of its market value destroyed, General Motors Company (NYSE:GM)‘s market cap shrank by $204 million, and U.S. Steel lost $142 million. These four bellwether stocks were responsible for more than 7% of the day’s total losses.

Washington officials reiterated President Herbert Hoover’s earlier statement that business fundamentals were sound. An anonymous source close to the White House told The Washington Post that the crazed trading action of recent days was “something of an indication that the depression would not be prolonged, even with reference to stock prices.”

The banking cabal led by JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM), established on Black Thursday in response to a record level of fear-fueled trading, offered no public statement, as it felt none was warranted. The bankers’ silence only served to amplify the sell-off, as many investors appeared to believe this group was to serve as an implicit floor against steep declines, not to “merely supply bids where no bids existed,” according to the Chicago Daily Tribune. The New York Times took the pulse of the market that afternoon and found it remarkably calm:

Many level-headed bankers and brokers expressed the opinion after the market’s close … that the reaction had been overdone, and that many stocks were worth in excess of their open market price on the year’s earnings alone. It would be hard to find one in Wall Street who believed a month ago that any such situation as the present one would have been encountered.

Those bankers and brokers changed their tune eventually. They would have no choice as the great Crash of 1929 barreled onward into the history books.

In an interview with CNBC a few years ago, legendary investor Warren Buffett was asked what set of numbers he would choose if he could only look at a single economic indicator for a month. While the Oracle of Omaha was hesitant to pick just one, he went with rail car loadings as his “desert island” indicator. You might say Buffett’s a little biased, considering he bought up North America’s second-largest railroad himself, but it makes sense. Railroads are the circulatory system of the economy, moving raw goods to factories and finished products to consumers. So it should be good news to more than rail investors to hear great results this quarter from some of North America’s biggest railroads, including Canadian National Railway (USA) (NYSE:CNI), Norfolk Southern Corp. (NYSE:NSC), and Canadian Pacific Railway Limited (USA) (NYSE:CP) this week, following on the heels of CSX Corporation (NYSE:CSX) and Union Pacific Corporation (NYSE:UNP) last week.

Photo courtesy of Canadian National

North America’s Class I rail stocks have been in a transition period in recent years, asrailroads have struggled with big declines in coal. Coal has historically been the largest volume driver and the most important commodity for railroads, but coal production has fallensteadily as natural gas has replaced it as the primary feedstock for power plants thanks to its cheap, abundant supply made possible by the shale fracking boom in North America.

That trend has caused analysts to expect hard times for the railroads, but in the third quarter every major railroad that has reported so far handily beat earning estimates. Sources of strength for the railroads were widespread and varied, with railroads reporting strong growth in intermodal cargo, automobiles, industrial materials and consumer goods, all signs of a broadly growing economic base. Railroads also benefited from dramatically increased shipments of crude oil, chemicals, and fracking sand made possible by the same shale energy boom that’s hurt coal volumes.

The party kicked off with the East Coast’s largest railroad, when CSX announced an earnings beat thanks largely to intermodal carloads and fracking-related shipments more than making up for declining coal. Union Pacific kept the good news coming, with significant increases in cars and industrial goods like cement, steel, and finished machines.

Norfolk Southern is the second-largest railroad on the East Coast, meaning that it, like CSX, has historically been highly geared to Appalachian coal shipments. Norfolk overcame its own coal deficit primarily with nearly 7% growth in intermodal shipments, 9% growth in metals and construction materials, and 14% growth in chemicals, again driven by shipments of crude oil from new shale production fields to East Coast refineries. Despite a 2% decline in coal, total unit volumes grew by 4%. Total earnings for the third quarter grew 20% on the back of these results.

Coca-Cola Enterprises, Soroban: In a filing this morning with the SEC, Soroban Capital Partners, managed by Eric W. Mandelblatt, reported increasing its exposure in Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc (NYSE:CCE) to 6.3%. Soroban Capital Partners raised its passive position to some 16.4 million shares, versus around 10.1 million shares reported in its latest 13F.

Soroban made the move into CCE a couple of days before the company announced its financial results for the third quarter. Net sales amounted to $2 billion, and EPS totaled $1.07 on a reported basis. The company plans to buy back at least $1 billion of its shares by the end of the year, under the terms of its $1.5 billion share repurchase program in 2013. For the whole 2013, Coca-Cola Enterprises expects EPS between $2.45 and $2.50.

Chase Coleman’s Tiger Global Management Llc also holds shares of Coca-Cola Enterprises, with its stake amounting to 5.4 million shares.

Disclosure: none

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Polar Capital, Somero: Polar Capital, led by Brian Ashford-Russell and Tim Woolley, recently reported ownership of 7.9 million shares of Somero Enterprises, Inc. (LON:SOM). According to a recent filing, the stake held by Polar Capital via its Polar Capital European Forager Fund Limited represents 14% of the company’s voting rights. The size of the current position has fallen by 1.0 million shares.

Disclosure: none