Fund adds 70,000 shares of Car-Mart
Magnolia Capital Fund recently acquired 70,000 shares of Rogers-based America’s Car-Mart, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In a series of transactions, Magnolia Capital Fund purchased 67,300 shares at the weighted-average sale price of $68.84 per share Wednesday and 2,700 shares at a weighted-average sale price of $65.85 on Thursday. In total, the share purchase was valued at about $4.81 million.
After the acquisition, Magnolia Capital Fund owns 720,000 shares of America’s Car-Mart, more than 10% of the buy-here, pay-here used car dealer’s outstanding shares. Omaha-based Magnolia Group LLC is a hedge fund that operates Magnolia Capital Fund and Magnolia Real Estate Fund.
Car-Mart closed at $70.08, up $5.36 or about 8% in trading Friday on the Nasdaq. Shares have traded as low as $52.24 and as high as $127.05 over the past year.
— John Magsam
Fayetteville ranked hottest rental market
The Fayetteville rental market, which includes most of Northwest Arkansas, has been rated the hottest small-sized market in 2022, while Little Rock ranks 11th, according to the RentCafe Blog.
According to the blog, 97% of apartments in the Fayetteville area are already occupied and when units become available they were filled within 14 days on average. The blog says 28 renters competed for each vacant apartment in the Fayetteville market during 2022, while nationally 14 renters competed for each vacancy. Fayetteville renters opted to stay in their leases 76.1% of the time, markedly higher than the national average of 62.7%.
Little Rock’s rental market saw 97% of apartments occupied, with a lease renewal rate of 72.2% and 13 renters on average competing for an apartment.
The Fayetteville market includes Benton, Washington, Madison, Crawford, Franklin and Sebastian counties. The Little Rock market includes the Little Rock, North Little Rock and Conway metro areas.
The Fayetteville area’s overall rental competitivity index score was 123 out of a possible 130. Little Rock’s score was 102.3.
For the survey, RentCafe looked at the number of renters competing for an apartment, the number of days rentals were vacant, the percentages of newly built apartments in the area, the share of renters who renewed leases and occupancy rates. RentCafe.com is a nationwide apartment search website.
— John Magsam
P.A.M. lead gainer as index rises 15.17
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, closed Friday at 786.24, up 15.17.
The top performer on the index Friday was America’s Car-Mart up 8% and the worst performer was P.A.M. Transportation, down 1.5%.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
