Insider Monkey finished processing more than 700 13F filings made by hedge funds and prominent investors. These filings show these funds’ portfolio positions as of September 30. In this article we are going to take a look at smart money sentiment towards Henry Schein, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSIC).
Henry Schein, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSIC) shares haven’t seen a lot of action during the fourth quarter. Overall, hedge fund sentiment was unchanged. The stock was in 23 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. The level and the change in hedge fund popularity aren’t the only variables you need to analyze to decipher hedge funds’ perspectives. A stock may witness a boost in popularity but it may still be less popular than similarly priced stocks. That’s why at the end of this article we will examine companies such as Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE:RCL), Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:A), and Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:IBKR) to gather more data points.
Follow Henry Schein Inc (NASDAQ:HSIC)
Follow Henry Schein Inc (NASDAQ:HSIC)
At Insider Monkey, we’ve developed an investment strategy that has delivered market-beating returns over the past 12 months. Our strategy identifies the 100 best-performing funds of the previous quarter from among the collection of 700+ successful funds that we track in our database, which we accomplish using our returns methodology. We then study the portfolios of those 100 funds using the latest 13F data to uncover the 30 most popular mid-cap stocks (market caps of between $1 billion and $10 billion) among them to hold until the next filing period. This strategy delivered 18% gains over the past 12 months, more than doubling the 8% returns enjoyed by the S&P 500 ETFs.
everything possible/Shutterstock.com
Keeping this in mind, let’s take a glance at the fresh action surrounding Henry Schein, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSIC).
What does the smart money think about Henry Schein, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSIC)?
At the end of the third quarter, a total of 23 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, unchanged from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).
Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Generation Investment Management, managed by David Blood and Al Gore, holds the number one position in Henry Schein, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSIC). According to its latest 13F filing, the fund has a $106.3 million position in the stock, comprising 1.2% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Fisher Asset Management, led by Ken Fisher, holding a $78.1 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining peers that hold long positions consist of Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management, Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors and Eric Bannasch’s Cadian Capital.
Due to the fact that Henry Schein, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSIC) has experienced no change in sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, we should take a look at a sect of hedge funds who were dropping their full holdings last quarter. Intriguingly, Brad Dunkley and Blair Levinsky’s Waratah Capital Advisors dumped the biggest stake of the 700 funds followed by Insider Monkey, totaling close to $15.3 million in stock. Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies also said goodbye to its stock, about $10.1 million worth of HSIC shares. These transactions are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).
Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Henry Schein, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSIC). We will take a look at Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE:RCL), Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:A), Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:IBKR), and Viacom, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIAB). All of these stocks’ market caps resemble HSIC’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| RCL | 26 | 821060 | -13 |
| A | 41 | 1395703 | 1 |
| IBKR | 26 | 588586 | -4 |
| VIAB | 44 | 1073033 | 3 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 34 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $970 million. That figure was $388 million in HSIC’s case. Viacom, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIAB) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE:RCL) and Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:IBKR) are the least popular ones with only 26 bullish hedge fund positions each. Compared to these stocks Henry Schein, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSIC) is even less popular than RCL. Considering that hedge funds aren’t fond of this stock in relation to other companies analyzed in this article, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and understand why the smart money isn’t behind this stock. This isn’t necessarily bad news. Although it is possible that hedge funds may think the stock is overpriced and view the stock as a short candidate, they may not be very familiar with the bullish thesis. In either case more research is warranted.
Suggested Articles:
Examples of Genetically Modified Organisms
Easiest Countries To Apply For Schengen Visa
Most Powerful Families In The World
Disclosure: None
