Starboard Value buys Bloomin’ Brands, exits Splunk in Q3

Jeffrey Smith’s Starboard Value disclosed in an SEC filing its holdings as of September 30, 2023. The fund’s one new buy during the third quarter included Bloomin’ Brands (BLMN). Starboard exited a number of positions during the quarter, including by size of previous position Splunk (SPLK), Willis Towers Watson (WTW), Abcam (ABCM), Papa John’s (PZZA), and LivePerson (LPSN). The fund increased its stakes in Acacia Research (ACTG), iShares Russell 2000 Value ETF (IWN), Algonquin Power (AQN), and iShares Russell Mid-Cap ETF (IWR), and reduced its stakes in Vertiv Holdings (VRT), Aecom (ACM), Salesforce (CRM), Rogers (ROG), and Gen Digital (GEN). Starboard’s top holdings, as of September 30, were GoDaddy (GDDY), Humana (HUM), Salesforce, Algonquin Power, and Wix.com (WIX).