As Cannae Holdings Inc. held its first-quarter conference call May 9, CEO Rick Massey used the time to tout Jacksonville-based business data company Dun & Bradstreet Holdings Inc.
Cannae is the investment company spun off from Jacksonville-based Fidelity National Financial Inc. and it is the largest shareholder of Dun & Bradstreet.
“What you’ll see if you look under the cover on Dun & Bradstreet is that (CEO) Anthony (Jabbour) and the team there have done an incredible job of turning around their marketing services divisions by using essentially a data management platform where customers can use their own data, third-party data and Dun & Bradstreet data to perfect their account-based marketing,” Massey said.
“It’s growing like gangbusters,” he said, but added it is not reflected in the stock price.
“It’s really disappointing to us and we wish that more attention was paid to Dun & Bradstreet because they’ve done a really nice job under the covers fixing a very broken company. They got it back to growth and growth faster than peers and yet, they’ve not been rewarded for that,” he said.
Cannae holds 79 million Dun & Bradstreet shares, representing 18% of the company’s stock.
Cannae is connected to Dun & Bradstreet through Fidelity Chairman Bill Foley, who is also chairman of Cannae and executive chairman of Dun & Bradstreet.
The investment spinoff is headquartered in Las Vegas, where Foley relocated after becoming owner of an NHL expansion team.
Foley led an investment group that took Dun & Bradstreet private in 2019 and after taking steps to turn around operations, they took the company public again with an initial public offering in 2020.
Dun & Bradstreet then moved its headquarters to Jacksonville in 2021.
Massey also touted Paysafe Ltd. in the conference call.
The London-based payments processing company merged with a special purpose acquisition company formed by Foley in 2021 and in November 2022, it announced it will open its North American headquarters in Jacksonville.
Cannae, which often participates in Foley-led deals, holds 3.4 million Paysafe shares, or about 6% of the stock.
Massey called Paysafe “everybody’s whipping child” in the conference call.
“Paysafe actually turned in high-single-digits revenue growth and flat EBITDA growth, which is pretty amazing given the mess that (CEO) Bruce (Lowthers) and the team inherited,” Massey said.
Cannae’s earnings are difficult to evaluate because they are based on the earnings of a wide range of businesses in its portfolio.
The company reported book value of $2.725 billion as of March 31, up from $2.719 billion at Dec. 31.
Treace Medical Concepts Inc. reported first-quarter revenue rose 45% to $42.2 million, with a net loss of $13.5 million.
The Ponte Vedra-based company, which markets a surgical treatment for bunions, went public two years ago and analysts don’t expect it to be profitable for at least another couple of years. However, they are following the growth of the company.
“It’s clear to us that the strategic investments we continue to make in our business are delivering strong returns, confirming we have the right strategies in place to expand the market penetration of our differentiating technologies,” CEO John Treace said in a May 8 conference call.
Treace said the company’s procedures are used in about 5.8% of the estimated 450,000 annual bunion surgical procedures in the U.S., up from a market share of 4.3% a year ago.
Treace Medical raised its revenue guidance slightly for all of 2023 to a range of $190 million to $196 million, from its previous forecast of $187 million to $193 million.
That would represent growth of 34% to 38% over 2022.
Jacksonville-based space technology firm Redwire Corp. said first-quarter revenue grew 38%, excluding acquisitions, to $57.6 million.
The company had a net loss of $7.3 million in the quarter. Redwire, like Treace, went public in 2021 and is projected to lose money for at least the next two years.
“We have started 2023 off with both record revenue and positive adjusted EBITDA,” CEO Peter Cannito said in a May 9 news release.
“Our strategy of providing proven space heritage products in the present combined with technical innovation for the future is on track for achieving profitability and delivering significant momentum as we continue to execute our 2023 plan,” he said.
Rayonier Advanced Materials Inc. reported first-quarter sales rose 33% to $467 million and earnings of $2 million, or 2 cents a share, reversing a loss in the first quarter of 2022.
“While we are experiencing pockets of softness in some parts of our business, we are able to offset through more efficient operations and reduced costs,” CEO De Lyle Bloomquist said in a May 9 news release by the Jacksonville-based specialty cellulose products company.
“Our top near-term priority remains the refinancing of our debt maturing in June 2024. With improved credit metrics, we expect to execute on this goal at acceptable terms in the coming quarter,” he said.
Cadrenal Therapeutics Inc., after completing its IPO in January, said it is making progress toward approval of its drug called tecarfarin.
Tecarfarin is designed to prevent systemic thromboembolism (blood clots) of cardiac origin in patients with end-stage renal disease and atrial fibrillation, according to the Ponte Vedra-based company.
Cadrenal has no products on the market and reported a net loss of $5.2 million in the first quarter.
“The first quarter of 2023 was one of tremendous progress for Cadrenal following the receipt of Fast Track designation for tecarfarin, and the completion of our initial public offering,” CEO Quang Pham said in a May 10 news release.
“We are following the FDA’s guidance, including the granting of an orphan drug designation, as well as that of industry-leading cardiologists and nephrologists, to pursue approval for tecarfarin in patients with end-stage renal disease and AFib to meet the widely acknowledged lack of effective treatment options for this patient population,” Pham said.
Cadre Holdings Inc. reported first-quarter sales rose 7% to $111.7 million with earnings of $7 million, or 19 cents a share, reversing a loss a year earlier.
Jacksonville-based Cadre markets safety and survivability products mainly for law enforcement and first responders.
Cadre is seeking to expand with acquisitions after completing two deals in 2022, but has not announced any potential deals this year.
“We are still hopeful we should be able to complete one or two transactions this year,” CEO Warren Kanders said in Cadre’s May 9 conference call.
“There is evidence that ongoing economic uncertainty has complicated the psychology around M&A and we will remain patient, thorough, disciplined and thoughtful about our approach as we evaluate deals and external macroeconomic factors sort themselves out,” he said.
Patriot Transportation Holding Inc. reported earnings of $475,000, or 13 cents a share, for its second quarter ended March 31, reversing a loss the previous year.
Revenue rose 12% to $23.5 million.
The Jacksonville-based trucking company, which transports mainly petroleum products in the Southeast, said it has increased its driver count by about 30 in the first six months of its fiscal year. That’s helping to increase revenue.
“While the driver hiring market is still very challenging, our driver count increased during the second quarter, which allowed us to add miles throughout the period,” CEO Rob Sandlin said in a May 9 conference call.
Patriot has increased driver pay by 25% to 35% since April 2021, and Sandlin said driver turnover is declining with the higher pay.
FRP Holdings Inc. reported first-quarter earnings of $565,000, or 6 cents a share, down from $672,000, or 7 cents, in the first quarter of 2022.
The Jacksonville-based real estate development company’s revenue rose 16% to $10.1 million.
FRP sold off most of its operating properties, a portfolio of 41 industrial warehouses, in 2018 and has been gradually reinvesting the proceeds in new projects since then.
“We will continue to monitor how inflation and interest rates affect our plans moving forward. We have a long-term vision for the future of the Company, but we are not going to rush into anything if the cost of material and debt prevent us from making a reasonable risk adjusted return,” the company said in a May 10 news release.
“We have excellent assets in place; our cash is generating a reasonable return; and we can afford to be patient about putting our plan in place,” it said.
Both FRP and Patriot were spun off from Jacksonville-based construction materials company Florida Rock Industries Inc., which was sold to Vulcan Materials Co. in 2007.
United Land Services, a Jacksonville-based landscape services company, said May 9 it acquired another Jacksonville-based landscaping company, Greenway Lawn & Landscape.
United, founded in 2001, said in a news release it has completed 16 acquisitions since September 2020, when private equity firms Centre Partners and LP First Capital acquired the business.
The company has grown to more than 1,200 employees in more than 20 locations in the Southeast, it said.
“United’s acquisition of Greenway is another step in our long-term strategy of building density in attractive geographic markets while strengthening our ability to continue to offer high-quality landscaping services for our customers,” United CEO Bob Blandford said in the release.
Greenway was founded in 2014.
Terms of the deal were not announced.