Hedge fund managers like David Einhorn, Dan Loeb, or Carl Icahn became billionaires through reaping large profits for their investors, which is why piggybacking their stock picks may provide us with significant returns as well. Many hedge funds, like Paul Singer’s Elliott Management, are pretty secretive, but we can still get some insights by analyzing their quarterly 13F filings. One of the most fertile grounds for large abnormal returns is hedge funds’ most popular small-cap picks, which are not so widely followed and often trade at a discount to their intrinsic value. In this article we will check out hedge fund activity in another small-cap stock: Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF).
Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF) was in 32 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2015. HLF has seen a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money lately. There were 34 hedge funds in our database with HLF holdings at the end of the previous quarter. 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 Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA (ADR) (NYSE:GOL), KAR Auction Services Inc (NYSE:KAR), and Panera Bread Co (NASDAQ:PNRA) to gather more data points.
Follow Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF)
Follow Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF)
In today’s marketplace there are a multitude of signals shareholders can use to value their stock investments. A duo of the less utilized signals are hedge fund and insider trading activity. We have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top hedge fund managers can outpace the market by a significant amount (see the details here).
With all of this in mind, let’s view the latest action encompassing Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF).
How have hedgies been trading Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF)?
At the end of the third quarter, a total of 32 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of -6% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes substantially (or already accumulated large positions).
According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Carl Icahn’s Icahn Capital LP has the number one position in Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF), worth close to $926.5 million, comprising 3.3% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Indus Capital, managed by David Kowitz and Sheldon Kasowitz, which holds a $120.4 million position; the fund has 16.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining peers that are bullish encompass William Duhamel’s Route One Investment Company, and Joe Huber’s Huber Capital Management.
