Insider Monkey has processed numerous 13F filings of hedge funds and successful value investors to create an extensive database of hedge fund holdings. The 13F filings show the hedge funds’ and successful investors’ positions as of the end of the second quarter. You can find write-ups about an individual hedge fund’s trades on numerous financial news websites. However, in this article we will take a look at their collective moves and analyze what the smart money thinks of Marathon Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:MPC) based on that data.
Marathon Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:MPC) was in 60 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the second quarter of 2019. MPC has experienced a decrease in hedge fund interest lately. There were 65 hedge funds in our database with MPC positions at the end of the previous quarter. Our calculations also showed that MPC isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.
If you’d ask most stock holders, hedge funds are assumed to be unimportant, old financial tools of yesteryear. While there are greater than 8000 funds in operation today, Our experts choose to focus on the aristocrats of this group, about 750 funds. These investment experts preside over most of the hedge fund industry’s total asset base, and by monitoring their inimitable picks, Insider Monkey has determined various investment strategies that have historically outperformed Mr. Market. Insider Monkey’s flagship hedge fund strategy surpassed the S&P 500 index by around 5 percentage points annually since its inception in May 2014. We were able to generate large returns even by identifying short candidates. Our portfolio of short stocks lost 25.7% since February 2017 (through September 30th) even though the market was up more than 33% during the same period. We just shared a list of 10 short targets in our latest quarterly update .
Unlike some fund managers who are betting on Dow reaching 40000 in a year, our long-short investment strategy doesn’t rely on bull markets to deliver double digit returns. We only rely on hedge fund buy/sell signals. We’re going to check out the latest hedge fund action regarding Marathon Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:MPC).
How are hedge funds trading Marathon Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:MPC)?
At Q2’s end, a total of 60 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of -8% from one quarter earlier. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards MPC over the last 16 quarters. So, let’s examine which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
The largest stake in Marathon Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:MPC) was held by Steadfast Capital Management, which reported holding $411.8 million worth of stock at the end of March. It was followed by Millennium Management with a $359.3 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included D E Shaw, Iridian Asset Management, and Elliott Management.
Since Marathon Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:MPC) has faced a decline in interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, logic holds that there is a sect of hedgies who were dropping their positions entirely by the end of the second quarter. Intriguingly, Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global cut the biggest position of the “upper crust” of funds monitored by Insider Monkey, comprising about $822.5 million in stock. Renaissance Technologies, also sold off its stock, about $36.2 million worth. These transactions are important to note, as total hedge fund interest fell by 5 funds by the end of the second quarter.
Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Marathon Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:MPC). These stocks are Ross Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:ROST), Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:APC), Dollar General Corporation (NYSE:DG), and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (NYSE:CM). This group of stocks’ market caps are closest to MPC’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| ROST | 32 | 862087 | 3 |
| APC | 77 | 7591969 | 27 |
| DG | 37 | 1377605 | 6 |
| CM | 12 | 210856 | -3 |
| Average | 39.5 | 2510629 | 8.25 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 39.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $2511 million. That figure was $3075 million in MPC’s case. Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:APC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (NYSE:CM) is the least popular one with only 12 bullish hedge fund positions. Marathon Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:MPC) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our calculations showed that top 20 most popular stocks (see the video below) among hedge funds returned 24.4% in 2019 through September 30th and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 4 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on MPC as the stock returned 9.9% during the third quarter and outperformed the market. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.
Video: Click the image to watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
