An activist shareholder says he agreed with Beazer Homes USA Inc.’s decision in May to reject a $704 million takeover bid from Jacksonville-based Dream Finders Homes Inc.
But now that Dream Finders has increased its offer to about $874 million in cash, Will Wyatt, managing partner of The Donerail Group, thinks Beazer should consider it.
“Following the news on July 8th of DFH’s latest revised offer of $32.00 per share, alongside the Company’s own report that it has received interest from additional parties regarding a range of potential transactions, we believe the situation has fundamentally shifted,” Wyatt said in a letter to Beazer’s board of directors.
“In our view, rejecting these overtures is no longer warranted,” he said.
Dream Finders began its pursuit of Atlanta-based Beazer in February. After several private rejections, Dream Finders publicly announced an offer May 11 to buy Beazer for $25.75 a share.
Beazer rejected that offer as undervalued.
After almost two months without any further announcements, Dream Finders said July 8 it made another offer in June at $29.25 a share and then increased the offer to $32.
Besides haggling over the price, both sides issued news releases July 8 saying they could not agree on terms for negotiating.
“Beazer has now introduced new roadblocks by demanding onerous preconditions to commencing due diligence,” Dream Finders said in its release announcing the latest offer.
“For example, Beazer has insisted that Dream Finders enter into a non-disclosure agreement with a 12-month standstill period. Dream Finders believes this is an attempt by Beazer to further delay engagement and impede the potential transaction,” it said.
Beazer responded with a release saying it had received interest from additional parties, without providing details. It also said Dream Finders “refused to enter into a customary confidentiality and ‘standstill’ agreement similar to those entered into by other parties.”
Dream Finders responded with a second release July 11 saying “Beazer’s claim that the confidentiality and standstill agreement they have asked us to sign is ‘customary’ is not grounded in reality.”
It also said Beazer’s board should “provide transparency around the expressions of interest from ‘additional parties’ and whether these are comparable to Dream Finders’ all-cash $32.00 per share offer with highly confident financing support.”
Neither side has publicly responded since then.
Although Beazer is headquartered in Atlanta, its home building activities include western markets in Phoenix, Las Vegas and several California cities.
Dream Finders CEO Patrick Zalupski has said a merger with Beazer would give the company operations in 21 of the top 50 metropolitan areas in the U.S. and pair Beazer’s strength in the West with Dream Finders’ presence in the East, Southeast and Texas.
Zalupski has also said Beazer should consider a merger because of its poor financial performance.
“Beazer has persistently underperformed relative to peers, being the only public homebuilder reporting consecutive quarters of operating losses. Management’s strategy has not delivered for shareholders and we believe it is not suited to the current market environment,” Zalupski said in a news release.
A story posted July 9 by housing market news site HousingWire said Dream Finders is taking a risk by increasing its offer for Beazer.
“The latest increase raises the financial fallout of being wrong about what it is buying. The company has put forward an all-cash offer near the highest level at which Beazer shares have traded in more than 15 years, without yet having access to the confidential diligence it says it needs to confirm its best offer,” it said.
“What’s more, Dream Finders will likely need to convince its own shareholders that it has the ability to improve Beazer’s performance. That is, while Dream Finders margins have remained above Beazer’s, Dream Finders has nonetheless experienced margin erosion due to the affordability-challenged environment the entire industry is grinding through,” HousingWire said.
Beazer’s stock has risen from $18.77 before Dream Finders first announced its pursuit May 11 to a high of $32.41 July 10, above the latest $32-a-share offer. That indicates some investors are betting continued negotiations will bring a higher price.
Wyatt’s July 9 letter to Beazer’s board said the latest Dream Finders offer “represents what we believe is a more than sufficiently attractive offer price for the Board to grant DFH, and any other similarly credible and willing suitor, full access to requested diligence.”
He said Donerail is one of Beazer’s largest stockholders, without giving details, but Securities and Exchange Commission filings do not show Donerail as having 5% or more of the stock.
Beazer’s most recent proxy statement shows three investment firms controlling more than 5% of the stock: Donald Smith & Co. Inc., BlackRock Inc. and The Vanguard Group.
Wyatt did say he has engaged with senior management of Beazer to discuss his views.
“We remain hopeful and expectant that immediate and productive engagement with DFH will commence, along with any other bona fide party interested in acquiring Beazer,” he said.
Rayonier Advanced Materials Inc., or RYAM, has been the subject of takeover speculation for much of 2026.
With or without a buyout, the maker of cellulose specialties products is trying to improve operations after seven straight years of losses from continuing operations.
So even as RYAM continues a review of strategic alternatives, Sidoti & Co. analyst Daniel Harriman is focusing on a potential turnaround.
“We continue to view 2026 as a year of execution, with management focused on reasserting leadership in CS, driving year-over-year improvement across every segment, generating positive free cash flow, and reducing debt,” Harriman said in a July 7 update report.
“Following a 1Q:26 that marked the low point of a deliberate transition, we expect RYAM to show clear sequential progress in 2Q:26 as the company’s Cellulose Specialties leadership initiative moves from price negotiation toward volume realization,” he said.
As RYAM goes through its operational issues and takeover speculation, it is also dealing with management upheaval.
Scott Sutton, who joined RYAM as CEO in January, resigned in April. In June, RYAM hired Daniel Krawczyk, former president of Huber Engineered Materials, as the new chief executive.
“The (strategic) review itself remains broad and ongoing, encompassing continued standalone operation, a strategic investment or partnership, a merger or other business combination, a sale of part or all of the company, and capital structure actions,” Harriman said.
“We read the appointment of a transaction-experienced chief executive as strengthening the company’s footing under any outcome rather than signaling a particular one, and consistent with our approach throughout the review, we continue to model RYAM as a standalone enterprise and exclude any transaction from our estimates and valuation,” he said.
Harriman has a $15 price target for RYAM’s stock, which was trading at $7.06 at the time of his report.
Second-quarter earnings season for Jacksonville-based companies kicks off July 22 with CSX Corp. scheduled to report its results, and at least one analyst expects to see a strong quarter from the railroad company.
“With positive volume trends and a constructive on-highway conversion environment, we like CSX into the print and are constructive on the company’s business outlook into 2027,” Baird analyst Daniel Moore said in a July 6 research note.
Moore said freight volume trends have been improving in several categories.
“We read the breadth as evidence of a durable demand recovery, and expect these trends to carry into 2027,” he said.
CSX’s stock has been trading at record highs recently, and Moore continues to rate it at “outperform.” He raised his target price for the stock from $49 to $53, with the stock trading at $48.81 at the time of his report.
Moore cited automobile shipments are one of the freight categories helping CSX because of “better-than-expected production trends from Tesla, Honda, and Subaru.”
Another Jacksonville-based company which could benefit from that is Proficient Auto Logistics Inc., which transports vehicles from manufacturers to dealers.
Stifel analyst J. Bruce Chan said in a July 12 research report on the trucking industry that he is constructive on Proficient “as a deep-value call that carries some nuance, but ultimately benefits from regulatory tightening. But overall, we anticipate a healthy print with ascending fundamentals and positive commentary toward the back half of the year.”
Chan rates Proficient at “buy” with a $9 price target, with the stock trading at $6.97 at the time of his report.
Chan is a bit less optimistic about overall freight trends for the trucking industry.
“In our view, the freight economy is not yet booming, but the available capacity base has tightened enough that even modest demand improvement can produce meaningful pricing response; carrier exits, higher break-even costs, and a tightened regulatory environment are all reducing the pool of usable capacity,” he said.
Chan expects a lag in earnings recovery for trucking stocks “but we anticipate positive commentary and healthy spot market performance to drive valuation this earnings season.”
Chan rates Jacksonville-based Landstar System Inc. as a “hold.”
Like CSX, Landstar has been trading near record highs. Chan raised his price target for Landstar from $175 to $186 with the stock trading at $209.32 at the time of his report.