Activist Investor Jana Partners Sells Whole Foods Stake

(RTTNews) - Activist investor Jana Partners LLC has sold its stake in grocery chain Whole Foods Market Inc. (WFM) and made a profit of about $300 million in a matter of months.

Jana Partners sold about 26 million shares in Whole Foods over the past month for combined proceeds of about $1.1 billion, according to a regulatory filing Wednesday. The New York hedge fund, founded by Barry Rosenstein, began selling its shares in the supermarket chain on June 19.

Jana announced a stake in Whole Foods in April and criticized the chain's poor performance, vowing to shake up the board and possibly seek a takeover of the company.

Amazon.com Inc., agreed to purchase Whole Foods on June 16 for $13.7 billion.

With Amazon offering $42 per share for Whole Foods, Jana began winding down its position. The investor offloaded the final 16 million in a block trade at $41.66 apiece on Tuesday, the filing shows.

Jana said in a previous filing that it had acquired its stake for about $794.5 million after disclosing its 8.3 percent stake in Whole Foods in April.