Sign up to get the latest stories and insights delivered to your inbox – free, every day.
Fund manager Allan Gray Australia has disclosed further net purchases of Fletcher Building shares, taking its holdings to 19.7%, up from 18.7% last June.
According to the disclosure, funds managed by Allan Gray bought A$129.2m ($156m) of shares between June and last week for an average A$2.78 a share.
Over the same period its funds sold A$104m worth for an average A$2.93.
The shares were trading on the ASX on Tuesday at around A$2.43.
Analyst Sudhir Kissun said the stake indicated Allan Gray’s view the shares were attractively priced.
While the share price reflected a depressed New Zealand building cycle, “our view is that the cycle turns upwards at some point,” he said.
“We’re patient investors and we’re happy to wait for the turn to come. The current management team are doing a lot of the right things in terms of positioning the business for an upturn.”
Dual-listed retirement village operator Summerset has lifted its first-quarter unit sales on a year ago, reporting 365 sales in the three months ended March.
This included 177 new unit sales and 188 resales, which is a respective 34% and 19% rise on the same period a year ago.
Chief executive Scott Scoullar said the company was pleased with the strong momentum through the quarter and expected it to flow through to the next.
He also said the company had not seen any immediate impact from rising fuel prices on sales or a material lift in construction costs, although it expected price increases in the coming months if the conflict in the Middle East persisted.
The company would increase use of EVs in its fleet, as well as reduce air travel, he said.
Summerset did not intend to make any changes to its operations now, but planned for several scenarios if the situation changed.