The chairman of the board of Third Avenue Assets Management, Marvin Whitman, announcing the company’s third quarter portfolio update, has acquired a 20 percent stake in Cavco Industries, Inc., a $510.4 million market cap with stock up over 25 percent in the last 12 months. He purchased 1,809,108 shares when the share price averaged $54 in the second quarter, accounting for 20.47 percent of all outstanding shares. Whitman previously sold his 50 percent share of Fleetwood Homes, Inc. to Cavco, as MHProNews reported here June 14, 2013, garnering Cavco stock in the exchange at that time. Noting Cavco is essentially debt free, Whitman says the company posted very strong results for the second quarter, and thinks “a considerable upside still exists for Cavco Common,” as reported by nasdaq.com. In a letter to investors, Whitman depicts three factors in hi stock analysis: “First the creditworthiness of the company issuing the equity; second, the ability of the issuer to grow net asset value (“NAV”) (or its surrogate book value) over the intermediate to longer term; and, three, the price of the common stock relative to NAV. As MHProNews knows, Cavco is the second largest producer of manufactured homes and modular homes and buildings in the U. S. The company’s Third Avenue Value Fund (TAVFX) closed Sept. 24 -0.07 percent at $57.62. He also purchased 823,730 shares of Total SA, the world’s fifth largest publicly-traded integrated oil and natural gas company; the company also bought 269,034 shares of Pargessa Holding SA, which owns operating companies in a variety of industries.