The latest 13F reporting period has come and gone, and Insider Monkey is again at the forefront when it comes to making use of this gold mine of data. We at Insider Monkey have plowed through 821 13F filings that hedge funds and well-known value investors are required to file by the SEC. The 13F filings show the funds’ and investors’ portfolio positions as of March 31st, a week after the market trough. In this article we look at what those investors think of EQT Corporation (NYSE:EQT).
EQT Corporation (NYSE:EQT) was in 30 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of March. EQT has seen an increase in hedge fund interest recently. There were 29 hedge funds in our database with EQT holdings at the end of the previous quarter. Our calculations also showed that EQT isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings and see the video for a quick look at the top 5 stocks).
Video: Watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.
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Steven Cohen of Point72 Asset Management
At Insider Monkey we leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, 2020’s unprecedented market conditions provide us with the highest number of trading opportunities in a decade. So we are checking out trades like this one. We interview hedge fund managers and ask them about their best ideas. If you want to find out the best healthcare stock to buy right now, you can watch our latest hedge fund manager interview here. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. Our best call in 2020 was shorting the market when the S&P 500 was trading at 3150 after realizing the coronavirus pandemic’s significance before most investors. With all of this in mind we’re going to review the latest hedge fund action regarding EQT Corporation (NYSE:EQT).
How have hedgies been trading EQT Corporation (NYSE:EQT)?
At Q1’s end, a total of 30 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 3% from the fourth quarter of 2019. By comparison, 36 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in EQT a year ago. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes considerably (or already accumulated large positions).
Among these funds, Citadel Investment Group held the most valuable stake in EQT Corporation (NYSE:EQT), which was worth $51.4 million at the end of the third quarter. On the second spot was Firefly Value Partners which amassed $36.4 million worth of shares. D E Shaw, Adage Capital Management, and Point72 Asset Management were also very fond of the stock, becoming one of the largest hedge fund holders of the company. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Firefly Value Partners allocated the biggest weight to EQT Corporation (NYSE:EQT), around 6.87% of its 13F portfolio. Deep Basin Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, dishing out 2.66 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to EQT.
As industrywide interest jumped, key money managers were breaking ground themselves. Point72 Asset Management, managed by Steve Cohen, established the most valuable position in EQT Corporation (NYSE:EQT). Point72 Asset Management had $19.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Till Bechtolsheimer’s Arosa Capital Management also initiated a $8.3 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new EQT investors: Bruce Kovner’s Caxton Associates LP, Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management, and Lee Ainslie’s Maverick Capital.
Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as EQT Corporation (NYSE:EQT) but similarly valued. We will take a look at CNO Financial Group Inc (NYSE:CNO), Vicor Corp (NASDAQ:VICR), Nelnet, Inc. (NYSE:NNI), and Graham Holdings Co (NYSE:GHC). This group of stocks’ market caps resemble EQT’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| CNO | 15 | 218787 | -8 |
| VICR | 14 | 31916 | 2 |
| NNI | 13 | 81943 | -1 |
| GHC | 21 | 283866 | 3 |
| Average | 15.75 | 154128 | -1 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 15.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $154 million. That figure was $234 million in EQT’s case. Graham Holdings Co (NYSE:GHC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Nelnet, Inc. (NYSE:NNI) is the least popular one with only 13 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks EQT Corporation (NYSE:EQT) is more popular among hedge funds. Our calculations showed that top 10 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 41.4% in 2019 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 10.1 percentage points. These stocks returned 8.3% in 2020 through the end of May but still managed to beat the market by 13.2 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on EQT as the stock returned 88.7% so far in Q2 (through the end of May) and outperformed the market by an even larger margin. Hedge funds were clearly right about piling into this stock relative to other stocks with similar market capitalizations.
Follow Eqt Corp (NYSE:EQT)
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
