Fidelity Increases Position in Air CanadaFidelity now owns 33,568,165 Air Canada shares, or 11.312 percent of total shares outstanding.
Between March and June of this year, Fidelity increased its Air Canada holdings from 12.3 million shares to just over 30 million representing 10.12 percent of total shares outstanding. In October, Fidelity decreased its holdings to under 10 percent.
On December 9th, Fidelity filed an Early Warning Report under the alternate monthly reporting system. The report indicates that on November 9th, Fidelity purchased 12,993,000 million Air Canada shares. You may recall that over 27 million shares traded that day, the same day Air Canada announced its Q3 results. A review of Fidelity’s previous ownership of Air Canada shares (back to 2007) reveals its current holdings represent the highest number of shares held by the Boston investment firm.
In the same Early Warning Report, Fidelity includes the following statement:
Purpose of Transaction
The Voting Shares of AIR CANADA INC were acquired in the ordinary course of business, for investment purposes only and not with the purpose of exercising control or direction over AIR CANADA INC.
Here is a summary of Fidelity’s current holdings for U.S. airlines:
Jet Blue, 28.356 million shares, up from 21.721 million on Sep 30
Southwest, 14.944 million shares, down from 18.342 million on Jun 30
Delta Airlines, 3.984 million shares, down from 8.088 million on Mar 31
Spirit Airlines, 3.125 million shares, down from 4.632 million on Sep 30
United Airlines, 1.795 million shares, unchanged from Jun 30
American, 168 thousand shares, unchanged from Jun 30