The financial regulations require hedge funds and wealthy investors that exceeded the $100 million equity holdings threshold to file a report that shows their positions at the end of every quarter. Even though it isn’t the intention, these filings to a certain extent level the playing field for ordinary investors. The latest round of 13F filings disclosed the funds’ positions on September 30th. We at Insider Monkey have made an extensive database of nearly 750 of those established hedge funds and famous value investors’ filings. In this article, we analyze how these elite funds and prominent investors traded Shinhan Financial Group Co., Ltd. (NYSE:SHG) based on those filings.
Shinhan Financial Group Co., Ltd. (NYSE:SHG) shareholders have witnessed a decrease in support from the world’s most elite money managers of late. SHG was in 4 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. There were 5 hedge funds in our database with SHG holdings at the end of the previous quarter. Our calculations also showed that SHG isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings and see the video below for Q2 rankings).
Video: Click the image to watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.
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Ken Griffin of Citadel Investment Group
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 as a one-way bet based on an under-the-radar fund manager’s investor letter and the stock already gained 20 percent. Now let’s go over the latest hedge fund action surrounding Shinhan Financial Group Co., Ltd. (NYSE:SHG).
How have hedgies been trading Shinhan Financial Group Co., Ltd. (NYSE:SHG)?
At the end of the third quarter, a total of 4 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of -20% from the second quarter of 2019. On the other hand, there were a total of 2 hedge funds with a bullish position in SHG a year ago. So, let’s review which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Pzena Investment Management, managed by Richard S. Pzena, holds the biggest position in Shinhan Financial Group Co., Ltd. (NYSE:SHG). Pzena Investment Management has a $6.1 million position in the stock, comprising less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Perella Weinberg Partners, holding a $1 million position; 0.2% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining hedge funds and institutional investors that hold long positions contain Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital and . In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Perella Weinberg Partners allocated the biggest weight to Shinhan Financial Group Co., Ltd. (NYSE:SHG), around 0.23% of its 13F portfolio. Pzena Investment Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, designating 0.03 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to SHG.
Since Shinhan Financial Group Co., Ltd. (NYSE:SHG) has witnessed falling interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s safe to say that there is a sect of hedgies that slashed their entire stakes in the third quarter. At the top of the heap, Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management cut the largest stake of the “upper crust” of funds watched by Insider Monkey, totaling an estimated $0.8 million in stock, and Benjamin A. Smith’s Laurion Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $0.4 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 1 funds in the third quarter.
Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Shinhan Financial Group Co., Ltd. (NYSE:SHG). These stocks are Avangrid, Inc. (NYSE:AGR), Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ:GRMN), Incyte Corporation (NASDAQ:INCY), and Principal Financial Group Inc (NASDAQ:PFG). All of these stocks’ market caps match SHG’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| AGR | 14 | 361586 | 2 |
| GRMN | 26 | 504128 | -6 |
| INCY | 32 | 3214518 | -4 |
| PFG | 19 | 98613 | 2 |
| Average | 22.75 | 1044711 | -1.5 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 22.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1045 million. That figure was $9 million in SHG’s case. Incyte Corporation (NASDAQ:INCY) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Avangrid, Inc. (NYSE:AGR) is the least popular one with only 14 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Shinhan Financial Group Co., Ltd. (NYSE:SHG) is even less popular than AGR. 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 SHG, though not to the same extent, as the stock returned 6.1% during the fourth quarter (through 11/30) and outperformed the market as well.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
