Texas investment firm Dimensional Fund Advisors has lifted significant minority holdings in at least eight shipping companies.
The firm, which has $677bn in assets under management, nearly tripled its stake in Teekay Corp, the Vancouver-headquartered energy shipping company.
The company told the US Securities & Exchange Commission that it held 5.08m shares at the end of 2023, which represents a 5.6% stake in the New York-listed company.
That is up from just 1.83m shares in 2022, a time when Dimensional Fund had just 1.8% of the outfit’s shares.
At Friday’s price of $8.08 per Teekay share, the holding is worth nearly $41.1m.
A Dimensional Fund spokeswoman did not immediately respond to TradeWinds’ request for comment on the investments.
The firm, led by co-chief executives Dave Butler and Gerard O’Reilly, boasts a history of “applying academic research” to investing in stocks and fixed-income securities.
International Seaways shares were another benefit of that approach, with Dimensional Fund reporting nearly 3.2m shares that gave it a 6.5% stake by year’s end.
At the end of 2022, the firm owned just 3.4% of Seaways, with 1.7m shares.
Dimensional Fund’s holding in product carrier owner Ardmore Shipping grew to 2.76m shares, a stake of 6.7%. That was an increase from 2.29m shares at the end of the prior year, worth 6.2% of the Irish company.
The firm now owns 6.9% of Overseas Shipholding Group, which focuses on US-flagged tankers, after lifting its share count to 4.98m from just 4.04m a year earlier.
And Dimensional Fund boosted its stake in SFL Corp, the John Fredriksen-backed ship lessor, to 8.8m shares, giving it a 7% stake at the end of 2023.
A year earlier, it had a 5% stake thanks to 6.31m shares.
Dimensional Fund also lifted its stake in container ship owner Matson and product carrier player Scorpio Tankers, while it reduced holdings in Eagle Bulk Shipping and Costamare.
