Long/short equity hedge funds had an amazing 2021 so far. During the first 4 months of this year long/short equity hedge funds returned nearly 9%, vs. 12% gain for the S&P 500 Index.
In 2020, global hedge funds gained around 12%, posting their strongest full-year returns since 2009. Close to 40% of the managers in the Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index reported double-digit return for 2020. Data from LCH Investments show that the world’s 20 best-performing hedge funds made a whopping $63.5 billion for their clients in 2020, a record in the last 10 years. This might look like a “rebound” for those who pay attention to just the hedge fund indices — where returns are shrinking amid fees and several other factors — but Insider Monkey’s strategy of focusing on the top picks of hedge funds and prominent investors has been consistently beating the market over the last several years. For instance, top 10 stocks picks of over 800 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey returned 256.5% from 2014 until 2020, versus SPY’s 132.4%.
Insider Monkey has long been a believer of imitating the top stock picks of hedge funds, and this strategy has helped us beat the market consistently over the last several years. For instance, between March 2017 and April 30th 2021 our monthly newsletter’s stock picks returned 212.6%, vs. 89.8% for the SPY. Our stock picks outperformed the market by more than 122 percentage points. Our performance so far in 2021 is also very strong. Our portfolio of stock picks returned 21% during the first 4 months of 2021, vs. 12% gain for the S&P 500 ETFs.
We don’t talk much about our small-cap stock picks but we have been sharing the list of 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds here at Insider Monkey since the end of 2018. The majority of these stocks aren’t traditional value stocks. In February 2021, we shared hedge funds’ top 30 stock picks. Six months ago we also shared hedge funds’ top 30 stock picks at the end of November 2020. Three months before that we shared hedge funds’ top 30 stock picks for Q2’20. This quarter’s top 30 stocks returned 3.8% so far in Q2 and underperformed the S&P 500 Index by 2 percentage points, while the top 5 stocks returned 8.9%, versus 5.8% for SPY in the same period.
Overall, hedge funds’ top 5 stock picks returned 39.9% in 2020 and beat the market by 21.6 percentage points. From 2015 until the end of 2020, these 5 stocks returned 209.4% and beat the S&P 500 Index by 104 percentage points.
More than half of all investors invest in dumb index funds because they were made to believe that they can’t outperform the market by stock selection (or they are forced to invest in index funds in their companies’ retirement accounts). I am going to share with you a very simple investment strategy that outperformed the dumb S&P 500 Index ETF (SPY) by 126 percentage points since 2015.
This simple strategy’s 10 stock picks returned 74% between 2015 and 2018, versus SPY’s 32% gain during the same period.
This simple strategy’s 10 stock picks also returned nearly 91% in 2019 and 2020, vs. SPY’s 55.3% gain.
This simple strategy’s 10 stock picks thrived in last year’s coronavirus crash returning 34.9% in 2020, vs. 18.4% gain for the S&P 500.
This is why we call index fund investing “dumb”.
The simple strategy I am talking about is hedge funds’ top 10 stock picks.
Every quarter we process more than 800 hedge funds’ 13F filings and identify the top stocks among ALL 800+ hedge funds. The list of top 10 hedge fund stocks hasn’t changed much since the third quarter of 2018. If you had invested in this low turnover simple strategy at the beginning of 2015, you would have outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by more than 126 percentage points.
Hedge funds knew these 10 stocks are the “best” 10 stocks to buy and they were piling into these stocks.
If you subscribe to our free e-newsletter below, you can get a daily free email alert whenever we publish something important.
Insider Monkey’s mission is to identify promising (and also terrible) hedge fund stock pitches and share them with our subscribers. We launched our monthly newsletter’s activist strategy nearly 4 years ago and this strategy’s picks returned 212.6% since then and beat the SPY by 122 percentage points. Our subscription prices start at $59 per year and come with a 14-day full refund guarantee.
Nowadays most investors believe that hedge funds lost their “magic touch” a long time ago and can’t beat the market. Don’t trust the returns reported by hedge fund indices. They misrepresent hedge funds’ stock picking skills. Hedge fund indices underperform the market because hedge funds hedge and they charge an arm and a leg for their services. If you want to compare apples to apples, you need to take a look at the performance of the most popular hedge fund stocks vs. the returns of the S&P 500 Index. Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Amazon have consistently been among the top 10 hedge fund picks over the last 8.5 years since we started publishing our quarterly newsletter. You don’t have to be a math wizard to calculate the mind numbing returns of these technology stocks most of which now trade for more than $1 trillion valuation.
The best thing about following hedge funds’ top picks on our website is that you don’t need to pay hedge funds an annual 2% fee and 20% of your profits to beat the market. We do that here free of charge using the holdings data from the legally required SEC portfolio disclosures. Our approach is also superior to investing directly into hedge funds because we don’t like to invest in a hedge funds’ 35th best idea when we can invest in only the best stock picks of the best hedge funds.
Below we listed the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds at the end of March 2021. If you are only interested in large-cap stocks, check out the top 20 stocks in this list below:
30. Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU)
Number of Hedge Funds: 89 (2021Q1)
Number of Hedge Funds: 51 (2020Q4)
Total Dollar Amount of Long Hedge Fund Positions: $6.57 billion
Percent of Hedge Funds with Long Positions: 10.3%
Second Quarter Return (through May 21): -12.9%
Popularity Ranking (2020Q4): 199
Popularity Ranking (2020Q3): Not in top 200
Noteworthy Hedge Fund Shareholders: Renaissance Technologies
Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies
29. Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C): $63.48
Number of Hedge Funds: 95 (2020Q4)
Number of Hedge Funds: 91 (2020Q3)
Total Dollar Amount of Long Hedge Fund Positions: $6.94 billion
Percent of Hedge Funds with Long Positions: 10.4%
Second Quarter Return (through May 21): 7.5%
Popularity Ranking (2020Q4): 26
Popularity Ranking (2020Q3): 23
Noteworthy Hedge Fund Shareholders: Kahn Brothers, ValueAct Capital
Kiev.Victor / Shutterstock.com
28. Shopify Inc. (NYSE: SHOP): $1,224.12
Number of Hedge Funds: 90 (2020Q4)
Number of Hedge Funds: 81 (2020Q3)
Total Dollar Amount of Long Hedge Fund Positions: $9.98 billion
Percent of Hedge Funds with Long Positions: 10.5%
Second Quarter Return (through May 21): 10.6%
Popularity Ranking (2020Q4): 33
Popularity Ranking (2020Q3): 38
Noteworthy Hedge Fund Shareholders: Lone Pine Capital
Stephen Mandel of Lone Pine Capital
27. Salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE: CRM): $222.58
Number of Hedge Funds: 97 (2020Q4)
Number of Hedge Funds: 106 (2020Q3)
Total Dollar Amount of Long Hedge Fund Positions: $8.84 billion
Percent of Hedge Funds with Long Positions: 10.5%
Second Quarter Return (through May 21): 5.1%
Popularity Ranking (2020Q4): 24
Popularity Ranking (2020Q3): 16
Noteworthy Hedge Fund Shareholders: Fisher Asset Management
Ken Fisher of Fisher Asset Management
26. Square, Inc. (NYSE: SQ): $200.01
Number of Hedge Funds: 89 (2020Q4)
Number of Hedge Funds: 73 (2020Q3)
Total Dollar Amount of Long Hedge Fund Positions: $9.20 billion
Percent of Hedge Funds with Long Positions: 10.6%
Second Quarter Return (through May 21): -11.9%
Popularity Ranking (2020Q4): 35
Popularity Ranking (2020Q3): 54
Noteworthy Hedge Fund Shareholders: Bares Capital Management
25. Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC): $45.88
Number of Hedge Funds: 99 (2020Q4)
Number of Hedge Funds: 90 (2020Q3)
Total Dollar Amount of Long Hedge Fund Positions: $7.45 billion
Percent of Hedge Funds with Long Positions: 11.1%
Second Quarter Return (through May 21): 17.7%
Popularity Ranking (2020Q4): 23
Popularity Ranking (2020Q3): 24
Noteworthy Hedge Fund Shareholders: Boykin Curry
Rob Wilson / Shutterstock.com
24. Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC): $42.40
Number of Hedge Funds: 99 (2020Q4)
Number of Hedge Funds: 88 (2020Q3)
Total Dollar Amount of Long Hedge Fund Positions: $45.32 billion
Percent of Hedge Funds with Long Positions: 11.2%
Second Quarter Return (through May 21): 9.6%
Popularity Ranking (2020Q4): 22
Popularity Ranking (2020Q3): 27
Noteworthy Hedge Fund Shareholders: GQG Partners
Pixabay/Public Domain
23. T-Mobile US, Inc. (NASDAQ: TMUS): $136.05
Number of Hedge Funds: 103 (2020Q4)
Number of Hedge Funds: 94 (2020Q3)
Total Dollar Amount of Long Hedge Fund Positions: $9.06 billion
Percent of Hedge Funds with Long Positions: 11.3%
Second Quarter Return (through May 21): 8.6%
Popularity Ranking (2020Q4): 20
Popularity Ranking (2020Q3): 21
Noteworthy Hedge Fund Shareholders: Viking Global
22. Sea Limited (NYSE: SE): $246.33
Number of Hedge Funds: 115 (2020Q4)
Number of Hedge Funds: 95 (2020Q3)
Total Dollar Amount of Long Hedge Fund Positions: $10.43 billion
Percent of Hedge Funds with Long Positions: 11.3%
Second Quarter Return (through May 21): 10.3%
Popularity Ranking (2020Q4): 15
Popularity Ranking (2020Q3): 20
Noteworthy Hedge Fund Shareholders: ARK Investment Management
Cathie Wood of ARK Investment Management
21. ServiceNow, Inc. (NYSE: NOW): $469.47
Number of Hedge Funds: 96 (2020Q4)
Number of Hedge Funds: 82 (2020Q3)
Total Dollar Amount of Long Hedge Fund Positions: $6.13 billion
Percent of Hedge Funds with Long Positions: 11.3%
Second Quarter Return (through May 21): -6.1%
Popularity Ranking (2020Q4): 25
Popularity Ranking (2020Q3): 36
Noteworthy Hedge Fund Shareholders: Tiger Global Management LLC, GQG Partners
20. Twilio Inc. (NYSE: TWLO): $314.64
Number of Hedge Funds: 94 (2020Q4)
Number of Hedge Funds: 71 (2020Q3)
Total Dollar Amount of Long Hedge Fund Positions: $5.81 billion
Percent of Hedge Funds with Long Positions: 11.4%
Second Quarter Return (through May 21): -7.7%
Popularity Ranking (2020Q4): 29
Popularity Ranking (2020Q3): 60
Noteworthy Hedge Fund Shareholders: SCGE Management
19. Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: MU): $80.72
Number of Hedge Funds: 100 (2020Q4)
Number of Hedge Funds: 79 (2020Q3)
Total Dollar Amount of Long Hedge Fund Positions: $7.62 billion
Percent of Hedge Funds with Long Positions: 11.5%
Second Quarter Return (through May 21): -8.5%
Popularity Ranking (2020Q4): 21
Popularity Ranking (2020Q3): 44
Noteworthy Hedge Fund Shareholders: Appaloosa Management LP
allstars/Shutterstock.com
18. Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: BKNG): $2,293.38
Number of Hedge Funds: 108 (2020Q4)
Number of Hedge Funds: 113 (2020Q3)
Total Dollar Amount of Long Hedge Fund Positions: $6.81 billion
Percent of Hedge Funds with Long Positions: 11.9%
Second Quarter Return (through May 21): -1.6%
Popularity Ranking (2020Q4): 19
Popularity Ranking (2020Q3): 13
Noteworthy Hedge Fund Shareholders: Ako Capital
Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock.com
17. Twitter, Inc. (NYSE: TWTR): $54.45
Number of Hedge Funds: 78 (2020Q4)
Number of Hedge Funds: 75 (2020Q3)
Total Dollar Amount of Long Hedge Fund Positions: $4.53 billion
Percent of Hedge Funds with Long Positions: 12.4%
Second Quarter Return (through May 21): -14.4%
Popularity Ranking (2020Q4): 54
Popularity Ranking (2020Q3): 50
Noteworthy Hedge Fund Shareholders: Elliott Management
joshua-hoehne-6vw_O9R4zf4-unsplash (1)
16. Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE): $488.07
Number of Hedge Funds: 114 (2020Q4)
Number of Hedge Funds: 106 (2020Q3)
Total Dollar Amount of Long Hedge Fund Positions: $12.11 billion
Percent of Hedge Funds with Long Positions: 12.4%
Second Quarter Return (through May 21): 2.7%
Popularity Ranking (2020Q4): 16
Popularity Ranking (2020Q3): 17
Noteworthy Hedge Fund Shareholders: Arrowstreet Capital
Copyright: photogearch / 123RF Stock Photo
15. Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX): $497.89
Number of Hedge Funds: 116 (2020Q4)
Number of Hedge Funds: 104 (2020Q3)
Total Dollar Amount of Long Hedge Fund Positions: $14.16 billion
Percent of Hedge Funds with Long Positions: 12.7%
Second Quarter Return (through May 21): -4.6%
Popularity Ranking (2020Q4): 14
Popularity Ranking (2020Q3): 18
Noteworthy Hedge Fund Shareholders: SRS Investment Management
Copyright: lculig / 123RF Stock Photo
14. JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM): $162.66
Number of Hedge Funds: 112 (2020Q4)
Number of Hedge Funds: 118 (2020Q3)
Total Dollar Amount of Long Hedge Fund Positions: $5.25 billion
Percent of Hedge Funds with Long Positions: 12.8%
Second Quarter Return (through May 21): 7.5%
Popularity Ranking (2020Q4): 17
Popularity Ranking (2020Q3): 12
Noteworthy Hedge Fund Shareholders: Adage Capital Management
pcruciatti / Shutterstock.com
13. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-B): $287.74
Number of Hedge Funds: 110 (2020Q4)
Number of Hedge Funds: 109 (2020Q3)
Total Dollar Amount of Long Hedge Fund Positions: $19.88 billion
Percent of Hedge Funds with Long Positions: 12.8%
Second Quarter Return (through May 21): 12.6%
Popularity Ranking (2020Q4): 18
Popularity Ranking (2020Q3): 15
Noteworthy Hedge Fund Shareholders: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust
12. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL): $125.43
Number of Hedge Funds: 146 (2020Q4)
Number of Hedge Funds: 134 (2020Q3)
Total Dollar Amount of Long Hedge Fund Positions: $130.91 billion
Percent of Hedge Funds with Long Positions: 14.7%
Second Quarter Return (through May 21): 2.9%
Popularity Ranking (2020Q4): 10
Popularity Ranking (2020Q3): 9
Noteworthy Hedge Fund Shareholders: Warren Buffett
11. Uber Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: UBER): $48.82
Number of Hedge Funds: 135 (2020Q4)
Number of Hedge Funds: 100 (2020Q3)
Total Dollar Amount of Long Hedge Fund Positions: $10.53 billion
Percent of Hedge Funds with Long Positions: 15%
Second Quarter Return (through May 21): -10.4%
Popularity Ranking (2020Q4): 12
Popularity Ranking (2020Q3): 19
Noteworthy Hedge Fund Shareholders: Altimeter Capital Management, Tiger Global Management LLC
GongTo/Shutterstock.com
10. The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS): $172.40
Number of Hedge Funds: 144 (2020Q4)
Number of Hedge Funds: 112 (2020Q3)
Total Dollar Amount of Long Hedge Fund Positions: $12.55 billion
Percent of Hedge Funds with Long Positions: 15.5%
Second Quarter Return (through May 21): -6.6%
Popularity Ranking (2020Q4): 11
Popularity Ranking (2020Q3): 14
Noteworthy Hedge Fund Shareholders: D E Shaw
Copyright: blanscape / 123RF Stock Photo
9. Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE: BABA): $211.06
Number of Hedge Funds: 156 (2020Q4)
Number of Hedge Funds: 166 (2020Q3)
Total Dollar Amount of Long Hedge Fund Positions: $15.50 billion
Percent of Hedge Funds with Long Positions: 15.6%
Second Quarter Return (through May 21): -6.9%
Popularity Ranking (2020Q4): 7
Popularity Ranking (2020Q3): 4
Noteworthy Hedge Fund Shareholders: Ken Fisher, Izzy Englander
Pieter Beens / Shutterstock.com
8. PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: PYPL): $250.69
Number of Hedge Funds: 147 (2020Q4)
Number of Hedge Funds: 150 (2020Q3)
Total Dollar Amount of Long Hedge Fund Positions: $14.72 billion
Percent of Hedge Funds with Long Positions: 16.5%
Second Quarter Return (through May 21): 3.2%
Popularity Ranking (2020Q4): 9
Popularity Ranking (2020Q3): 8
Noteworthy Hedge Fund Shareholders: Terry Smith
www.BillionPhotos.com / Shutterstock.com
7. Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE: MA): $367.60
Number of Hedge Funds: 154 (2020Q4)
Number of Hedge Funds: 133 (2020Q3)
Total Dollar Amount of Long Hedge Fund Positions: $17.10 billion
Percent of Hedge Funds with Long Positions: 17.4%
Second Quarter Return (through May 21): 3.4%
Popularity Ranking (2020Q4): 8
Popularity Ranking (2020Q3): 10
Noteworthy Hedge Fund Shareholders: Akre Capital Management
Valeri Potapova / Shutterstock.com
6. Alphabet Inc. Class C (NASDAQ: GOOG): $2,345.10
Number of Hedge Funds: 157 (2020Q4)
Number of Hedge Funds: 150 (2020Q3)
Total Dollar Amount of Long Hedge Fund Positions: $29.09 billion
Percent of Hedge Funds with Long Positions: 18.4%
Second Quarter Return (through May 21): 13.4%
Popularity Ranking (2020Q4): 6
Popularity Ranking (2020Q3): 7
Noteworthy Hedge Fund Shareholders: Melvin Capital
5. Visa Inc. (NYSE: V): $226.77
Number of Hedge Funds: 166 (2020Q4)
Number of Hedge Funds: 160 (2020Q3)
Total Dollar Amount of Long Hedge Fund Positions: $26.59 billion
Percent of Hedge Funds with Long Positions: 18.9%
Second Quarter Return (through May 21): 7.3%
Popularity Ranking (2020Q4): 5
Popularity Ranking (2020Q3): 6
Noteworthy Hedge Fund Shareholders: Fisher Asset Management
JMiks / Shutterstock.com
4. Alphabet Inc. Class A (NASDAQ: GOOGL): $2,294.13
Number of Hedge Funds: 179 (2020Q4)
Number of Hedge Funds: 162 (2020Q3)
Total Dollar Amount of Long Hedge Fund Positions: $24.57 billion
Percent of Hedge Funds with Long Positions: 21.4%
Second Quarter Return (through May 21): 11.2%
Popularity Ranking (2020Q4): 4
Popularity Ranking (2020Q3): 5
Noteworthy Hedge Fund Shareholders: Chris Hohn
Asif Islam / Shutterstock.com
3. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN): $3,203.08
Number of Hedge Funds: 273 (2020Q4)
Number of Hedge Funds: 245 (2020Q3)
Total Dollar Amount of Long Hedge Fund Positions: $50.42 billion
Percent of Hedge Funds with Long Positions: 28.1%
Second Quarter Return (through May 21): 3.5%
Popularity Ranking (2020Q4): 1
Popularity Ranking (2020Q3): 1
Noteworthy Hedge Fund Shareholders: Masayoshi Son
Pixabay/ Public Domain
2. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT): $245.17
Number of Hedge Funds: 258 (2020Q4)
Number of Hedge Funds: 234 (2020Q3)
Total Dollar Amount of Long Hedge Fund Positions: $58.96 billion
Percent of Hedge Funds with Long Positions: 29%
Second Quarter Return (through May 21): 4.2%
Popularity Ranking (2020Q4): 2
Popularity Ranking (2020Q3): 2
Noteworthy Hedge Fund Shareholders: Tiger Global, Daniel Sundheim
Daniel Sundheim of D1 Capital
1. Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ: FB): $316.23
Number of Hedge Funds: 242 (2020Q4)
Number of Hedge Funds: 230 (2020Q3)
Total Dollar Amount of Long Hedge Fund Positions: $40.97 billion
Percent of Hedge Funds with Long Positions: 29.7%
Second Quarter Return (through May 21): 7.4%
Popularity Ranking (2020Q4): 3
Popularity Ranking (2020Q3): 3
Noteworthy Hedge Fund Shareholders: Lone Pine Capital, Brad Gestner
Please also see Bill Gates’ Most Recent Investments and Warren Buffett’s Top 10 Stock Picks.
Disclosure: I own large positions in some of these stocks but you can assume that there are conflicts of interest and I have an incentive to write favorably about all of these stocks and hedge funds.
