A whopping number of 13F filings filed with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has been processed by Insider Monkey so that individual investors can look at the overall hedge fund sentiment towards the stocks included in their watchlists. These freshly-submitted public filings disclose money managers’ equity positions as of the end of the three-month period that ended September 30th, so let’s proceed with the discussion of the hedge fund sentiment on Air Lease Corp (NYSE:AL).
Air Lease Corp (NYSE:AL) shareholders have witnessed an increase in enthusiasm from smart money recently. Air Lease Corp (NYSE:AL) was in 24 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. The all time high for this statistic is 33. There were 22 hedge funds in our database with AL holdings at the end of June. Our calculations also showed that AL isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings).
Matthew Lindenbaum of Basswood Capital
At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, lithium prices have more than doubled over the past year, so we go through lists like the 10 best EV stocks to pick the next Tesla that will deliver a 10x return. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. With all of this in mind we’re going to analyze the recent hedge fund action regarding Air Lease Corp (NYSE:AL).
Do Hedge Funds Think AL Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
At Q3’s end, a total of 24 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 9% from the second quarter of 2021. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards AL over the last 25 quarters. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were adding to their holdings considerably (or already accumulated large positions).
Among these funds, Windacre Partnership held the most valuable stake in Air Lease Corp (NYSE:AL), which was worth $257.4 million at the end of the third quarter. On the second spot was Lyrical Asset Management which amassed $119.2 million worth of shares. Royce & Associates, Basswood Capital, and D E Shaw 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 Windacre Partnership allocated the biggest weight to Air Lease Corp (NYSE:AL), around 5.74% of its 13F portfolio. Lyrical Asset Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, designating 1.53 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to AL.
Now, key money managers have jumped into Air Lease Corp (NYSE:AL) headfirst. Cobalt Capital Management, managed by Wayne Cooperman, assembled the biggest position in Air Lease Corp (NYSE:AL). Cobalt Capital Management had $2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Donald Sussman’s Paloma Partners also initiated a $2 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new AL positions are Sander Gerber’s Hudson Bay Capital Management, Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP, and Peter Algert’s Algert Global.
Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Air Lease Corp (NYSE:AL) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Madison Square Garden Sports Corp. (NYSE:MSGS), DT Midstream Inc. (NYSE:DTM), John Bean Technologies Corporation (NYSE:JBT), Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. (NYSE:HE), Sprinklr Inc. (NYSE:CXM), MACOM Technology Solutions Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:MTSI), and MSC Industrial Direct Co Inc (NYSE:MSM). This group of stocks’ market caps match AL’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| MSGS | 35 | 1144110 | -2 |
| DTM | 22 | 482419 | 18 |
| JBT | 13 | 124009 | -6 |
| HE | 14 | 42020 | 0 |
| CXM | 11 | 61128 | -5 |
| MTSI | 18 | 167696 | -6 |
| MSM | 25 | 385942 | 7 |
| Average | 19.7 | 343903 | 0.9 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 19.7 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $344 million. That figure was $551 million in AL’s case. Madison Square Garden Sports Corp. (NYSE:MSGS) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Sprinklr Inc. (NYSE:CXM) is the least popular one with only 11 bullish hedge fund positions. Air Lease Corp (NYSE:AL) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for AL is 55.9. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. Our calculations showed that top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 95.8% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 40 percentage points. These stocks gained 31.1% in 2021 through December 9th and still beat the market by 5.1 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on AL as the stock returned 13.1% since the end of Q3 (through 12/9) and outperformed the market. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.
Follow Air Lease Corp (NYSE:AL)
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
