Last year, we updated our earlier analyses that showed how activist investing need not cost a ton of money (below). Six months later, we thought we'd check on the situation. Over the three separate analyses, we've seen a degree of activism, but not quite what we might have expected lately. Things should pick up, though, in the coming months.

In the most recent version (2013), we identified 26 companies that fit the criteria, including size, value, and concentrated institutional ownership. In the three versions (2010, 2012, and 2013) of this analysis, we identified a total of 73 companies, with several appearing on two versions, and one on all three.

Among the 73 companies, almost one-third became subjects of an activist investor:

• activist subject - 23 companies
• acquired or buyout - 6 companies
• bankrupt - one company
• no activity - 43 companies.

In the most recent version, from last year, many fewer companies attracted attention from activist investors. Of those 26 companies, only six had become the subject of an activist campaign, and five of those continued from one of the two earlier analyses. Another two companies were acquired, with 18 having no activity.

For the 15 companies, then, that first appeared in the analysis in 2013 (out of 26 total), only one was the subject of an activist investor, two were the acquired companies, and 12 had no activity.

We know it's early, only six months after these companies showed up as viable activist candidates. Yet, we estimate that these also represent attractive value investments, with significant cash and book value relative to market cap, and substantial share price appreciation potential. And, with interest in activism at a high, we'd think activist investors would look for these kinds of names.

We expect many of these to attract attention in the coming months and years. The previous two analyses had 47 companies between them, and 17 of them became activist targets. Five were bought out or acquired. So, stay tuned.