Marcato Capital Management has taken a 6.3% stake in LPL Financial, according to regulatory filings.
As of Tuesday, the San Francisco-based hedge fund, which is run by Mick McGuire and known for its activist approach, owns some 6 million shares.
Marcato, which Reuters has called "one of the country's hottest hedge funds," thinks the independent brokerage's shares are undervalued, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
In the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Marcato said it may reach out to LPL regarding the independent broker-dealer's corporate growth strategies.
"LPL Financial maintains an active and ongoing dialogue with its investors and values their input as we work toward the common goal of driving stockholder value," the company said in a statement.
LPL's top institutional holders, as of June 30, were SPO Advisory Corp. (9.2%), T. Rowe Price Associates (8.4%); Janus Capital Management (6.7%), Vanguard Group (5.4%), Invesco (4.6%) and Morgan Stanley (3.9%), according to Yahoo Finance.
The IBD's shares traded up about 1.5% Tuesday after the news broke to about $41 per share.
Under Pressure
Last week, LPL named Emily Gordy executive vice president and deputy general counsel. Gordy joined LPL from Shulman, Rogers, Gandel, Pordy & Ecker. Prior to this role, she spent 27 years as a regulator for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. In addition, she worked for its predecessor, the National Association of Securities Dealers, and for the SEC.
The IBD also says it set up a Regulatory Counseling group that will provide all business units with advice and counsel about "regulatory, compliance and risk matters." The group includes an internal investigations unit and is led by James S. Shorris, executive vice president, deputy general counsel and a former FINRA enforcement chief who joined LPL in 2011.
