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 have processed the filings of the more than 867 world-class investment firms that we track and now have access to the collective wisdom contained in these filings, which are based on their September 30th holdings, data that is available nowhere else. Should you consider AMERCO (NASDAQ:UHAL) for your portfolio? We’ll look to this invaluable collective wisdom for the answer.
Is AMERCO (NASDAQ:UHAL) an exceptional investment right now? The smart money was in an optimistic mood. The number of long hedge fund bets improved by 4 lately. AMERCO (NASDAQ:UHAL) was in 25 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. The all time high for this statistic is 28. Our calculations also showed that UHAL isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings).
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. Now we’re going to take a look at the latest hedge fund action encompassing AMERCO (NASDAQ:UHAL).
David Abrams of Abrams Capital Management
Do Hedge Funds Think UHAL Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
At third quarter’s end, a total of 25 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 19% from the previous quarter. By comparison, 19 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in UHAL a year ago. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were adding to their stakes meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).
More specifically, Abrams Capital Management was the largest shareholder of AMERCO (NASDAQ:UHAL), with a stake worth $362.6 million reported as of the end of September. Trailing Abrams Capital Management was Yacktman Asset Management, which amassed a stake valued at $287.4 million. AQR Capital Management, JNE Partners, and Third Avenue 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 JNE Partners allocated the biggest weight to AMERCO (NASDAQ:UHAL), around 18.52% of its 13F portfolio. Abrams Capital Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, dishing out 7.91 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to UHAL.
Consequently, specific money managers have been driving this bullishness. Capital Growth Management, managed by Ken Heebner, established the most outsized position in AMERCO (NASDAQ:UHAL). Capital Growth Management had $8.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP also made a $2.2 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp, Greg Eisner’s Engineers Gate Manager, and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.
Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to AMERCO (NASDAQ:UHAL). These stocks are Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH), Agnico Eagle Mines Limited (NYSE:AEM), Campbell Soup Company (NYSE:CPB), LPL Financial Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LPLA), Jones Lang LaSalle Inc (NYSE:JLL), Iron Mountain Incorporated (NYSE:IRM), and Enel Americas S.A. (NYSE:ENIA). This group of stocks’ market caps are closest to UHAL’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| GH | 31 | 1515303 | -18 |
| AEM | 33 | 415664 | 4 |
| CPB | 29 | 443269 | 2 |
| LPLA | 37 | 1690118 | -11 |
| JLL | 30 | 2108449 | -1 |
| IRM | 21 | 63525 | -4 |
| ENIA | 9 | 29042 | 2 |
| Average | 27.1 | 895053 | -3.7 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 27.1 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $895 million. That figure was $901 million in UHAL’s case. LPL Financial Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LPLA) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Enel Americas S.A. (NYSE:ENIA) is the least popular one with only 9 bullish hedge fund positions. AMERCO (NASDAQ:UHAL) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for UHAL is 64.4. 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. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on UHAL as the stock returned 10.7% since the end of the third quarter (through 12/9) and outperformed the market by an even larger margin.
Follow U-Haul Holding Co (NASDAQ:UHALB)
Follow U-Haul Holding Co (NASDAQ:UHALB)
Suggested Articles:
- 15 Largest Electronics Companies in the World
- 10 Best Stocks To Invest In Right Now
- 10 Best Stocks to Buy With 50+ Years of Dividend Increases
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
