ESL Partners’ Eddie Lampert continues to cut his stake in AutoZone.
The hedge fund manager Thursday said in a regulatory filing he has cut his stake in the auto parts retailer to 30.3 percent, selling stock for mostly around $293 per share.
This is his third report of huge sales in the company in the past two weeks.
Since May 26, Lampert has sold about 1.5 million shares of AutoZone for between $290 and $298, its all-time high close.
The stock closed Wednesday at $291.32. Even so, it is up about 7 percent for the year.
Lampert has been a shareholder of AutoZone for more than a decade and served on the company’s Board of Directors from 1999 to 2006. It is one of three stocks that currently make up the bulk of his U.S. stock portfolio, valued at about $10.7 billion on March 31, according to a regulatory filing.
Of course, Lampert is best known these days for being the largest shareholder of Sears H9oldings and serving as the embattled retailer’s chairman. Its stock is down $4 this year alone, or more than 5 percent.
Lampert also has a large stake in AutoNation, which is up more than 29 percent this year.
Lampert is well known for holding just a handful of stocks. His nearly $10.7 billion in U.S. stocks was spread over just 10 individual issues.
The hedge fund manager, who BusinessWeek once audaciously called the next Warren Buffett, took a small, $56 million stake in Big Lots in the first quarter.
Big Lots specializes in what is called close-outs—merchandise that either could not sell elsewhere or which suffered from excess
