We at Insider Monkey have gone over 752 13F filings that hedge funds and prominent investors are required to file by the SEC The 13F filings show the funds’ and investors’ portfolio positions as of September 30th. In this article, we look at what those funds think of Piper Jaffray Companies (NYSE:PJC) based on that data.
Hedge fund interest in Piper Jaffray Companies (NYSE:PJC) shares was flat at the end of last quarter. This is usually a negative indicator. At the end of this article we will also compare PJC to other stocks including Teekay LNG Partners L.P. (NYSE:TGP), Franks International NV (NYSE:FI), and First Bancorp (NASDAQ:FBNC) to get a better sense of its popularity.
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Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies
We leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example Discover is offering this insane cashback card, so we look into shorting the stock. One of the most bullish analysts in America just put his money where his mouth is. He says, “I’m investing more today than I did back in early 2009.” So we check out his pitch. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. We even check out this option genius’ weekly trade ideas. This December we recommended Adams Energy based on an under-the-radar fund manager’s investor letter and the stock gained 20 percent. Let’s go over the new hedge fund action regarding Piper Jaffray Companies (NYSE:PJC).
How are hedge funds trading Piper Jaffray Companies (NYSE:PJC)?
At Q3’s end, a total of 9 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 0% from the previous quarter. On the other hand, there were a total of 7 hedge funds with a bullish position in PJC a year ago. So, let’s find out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
The largest stake in Piper Jaffray Companies (NYSE:PJC) was held by Renaissance Technologies, which reported holding $33.2 million worth of stock at the end of September. It was followed by Fisher Asset Management with a $10.1 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included Arrowstreet Capital, Two Sigma Advisors, and Winton Capital Management. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Weld Capital Management allocated the biggest weight to Piper Jaffray Companies (NYSE:PJC), around 0.04% of its 13F portfolio. Renaissance Technologies is also relatively very bullish on the stock, setting aside 0.03 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to PJC.
Due to the fact that Piper Jaffray Companies (NYSE:PJC) has experienced a decline in interest from the smart money, we can see that there lies a certain “tier” of funds that elected to cut their entire stakes by the end of the third quarter. Interestingly, Michael Gelband’s ExodusPoint Capital said goodbye to the biggest stake of the “upper crust” of funds followed by Insider Monkey, comprising close to $0.6 million in stock, and Donald Sussman’s Paloma Partners was right behind this move, as the fund dropped about $0.5 million worth. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).
Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Piper Jaffray Companies (NYSE:PJC) but similarly valued. These stocks are Teekay LNG Partners L.P. (NYSE:TGP), Franks International NV (NYSE:FI), First Bancorp (NASDAQ:FBNC), and Navigant Consulting, Inc. (NYSE:NCI). This group of stocks’ market caps match PJC’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| TGP | 10 | 43552 | 1 |
| FI | 11 | 22572 | -4 |
| FBNC | 15 | 84801 | 1 |
| NCI | 16 | 110997 | 5 |
| Average | 13 | 65481 | 0.75 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 13 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $65 million. That figure was $49 million in PJC’s case. Navigant Consulting, Inc. (NYSE:NCI) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Teekay LNG Partners L.P. (NYSE:TGP) is the least popular one with only 10 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Piper Jaffray Companies (NYSE:PJC) is even less popular than TGP. Our calculations showed that top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 37.4% in 2019 through the end of November and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 9.9 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on PJC, though not to the same extent, as the stock returned 7.7% during the fourth quarter (through 11/30) and outperformed the market as well.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
