By Svea Herbst-Bayliss
NEW YORK, May 12 (Reuters) - Activist investor Ananym Capital Management sees room for BWX Technologies' stock to double in coming years if the defense and energy company commercializes its mothballed nuclear reactor design to help meet ballooning energy demand.
The two-year-old investment firm has owned BWX Technologies for months and co-founder Alex Silver spoke about it publicly at the Sohn Investment Conference in New York on Tuesday.
Nearly a decade ago, BWX Technologies
archived a pressurized water reactor small modular reactor design that Ananym believes could be competitive now as demand for clean energy from data center operators is booming.
Lynchburg, Virginia-based BWX Technologies, which has a market value of $19 billion, supplies nuclear reactors to the U.S. Navy, and produces and maintains advanced commercial nuclear components as well as radioisotopes for diagnostic and therapeutic treatment.
Its shares, which closed on Tuesday at $206.83 on the New York Stock Exchange, have risen about 93% in the past 12 months. Gains have been fueled by growing energy needs, defense spending, government and commercial investment in nuclear power and the growth in nuclear medicine.
MULTIPLE PATHS TO SHAREHOLDER VALUE
Ananym argues the company has several paths to creating more value for shareholders. BWX Technologies' stock price could grow by roughly 45% if it remains a so-called picks-and-shovels supplier to large reactor and boiling water small modular reactor makers, Ananym argued.
But with no clear leader in the pressurized water small modular reactor maker market, BWX Technologies has a chance to develop its mPower technology alone or through a joint venture, which could push the share price even higher.
Ananym said this would not cannibalize existing sales because there are different buyers for pressurized and boiling water small modular reactors and plenty of demand.
The Trump administration has already established a goal to increase nuclear energy capacity fourfold by 2050.
Ananym's two founding partners, Silver and Charlie Penner, have prominent resumes in the activist world. Penner successfully challenged Exxon Mobil's board in 2021 at hedge fund Engine No. 1 and was previously a partner at Jana Partners. Silver was a founding partner at P2 Capital Partners.
The pair pushed for significant changes at medical/dental supplier Henry Schein in November 2024 and has urged energy technology company Baker Hughes to spin off its Oilfield Services & Equipment business.
(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss in New York; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
