The latest 13F reporting period has come and gone, and Insider Monkey is again at the forefront when it comes to making use of this gold mine of data. We at Insider Monkey have plowed through 821 13F filings that hedge funds and well-known value investors are required to file by the SEC. The 13F filings show the funds’ and investors’ portfolio positions as of March 31st, a week after the market trough. In this article we look at what those investors think of FireEye Inc (NASDAQ:FEYE).
Is FireEye Inc (NASDAQ:FEYE) going to take off soon? Money managers are becoming more confident. The number of bullish hedge fund positions moved up by 2 in recent months. Our calculations also showed that FEYE isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings and see the video for a quick look at the top 5 stocks). FEYE was in 32 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of March. There were 30 hedge funds in our database with FEYE holdings at the end of the previous quarter.
Video: Watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.
In today’s marketplace there are a lot of indicators shareholders can use to value their stock investments. A couple of the most innovative indicators are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. Our researchers have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite investment managers can outpace the market by a healthy margin (see the details here).
Israel Englander of Millennium Management
At Insider Monkey we leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, 2020’s unprecedented market conditions provide us with the highest number of trading opportunities in a decade. So we are checking out trades like this one. We interview hedge fund managers and ask them about their best ideas. If you want to find out the best healthcare stock to buy right now, you can watch our latest hedge fund manager interview here. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. Our best call in 2020 was shorting the market when the S&P 500 was trading at 3150 after realizing the coronavirus pandemic’s significance before most investors. Now let’s take a gander at the recent hedge fund action regarding FireEye Inc (NASDAQ:FEYE).
What have hedge funds been doing with FireEye Inc (NASDAQ:FEYE)?
At the end of the first quarter, a total of 32 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 7% from the previous quarter. On the other hand, there were a total of 27 hedge funds with a bullish position in FEYE 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.
Among these funds, Citadel Investment Group held the most valuable stake in FireEye Inc (NASDAQ:FEYE), which was worth $35.9 million at the end of the third quarter. On the second spot was D E Shaw which amassed $22.3 million worth of shares. Osterweis Capital Management, Fisher Asset Management, and Lynrock Lake were also very fond of the stock, becoming one of the largest hedge fund holders of the company. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Trellus Management Company allocated the biggest weight to FireEye Inc (NASDAQ:FEYE), around 1.99% of its 13F portfolio. Osterweis Capital Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, designating 1.39 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to FEYE.
As industrywide interest jumped, some big names were leading the bulls’ herd. Lynrock Lake, managed by Cynthia Paul, initiated the largest position in FireEye Inc (NASDAQ:FEYE). Lynrock Lake had $12.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Israel Englander’s Millennium Management also made a $4.6 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new FEYE positions are Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, Adam Usdan’s Trellus Management Company, and Marc Majzner’s Clearline Capital.
Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to FireEye Inc (NASDAQ:FEYE). These stocks are BRF SA (NYSE:BRFS), John Bean Technologies Corporation (NYSE:JBT), Youdao, Inc. (NYSE:DAO), and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd (NASDAQ:NCLH). This group of stocks’ market caps are similar to FEYE’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| BRFS | 14 | 34760 | 0 |
| JBT | 12 | 69622 | -4 |
| DAO | 6 | 183674 | 3 |
| NCLH | 20 | 113661 | -18 |
| Average | 13 | 100429 | -4.75 |
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 $100 million. That figure was $160 million in FEYE’s case. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd (NASDAQ:NCLH) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Youdao, Inc. (NYSE:DAO) is the least popular one with only 6 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks FireEye Inc (NASDAQ:FEYE) is more popular among hedge funds. Our calculations showed that top 10 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 41.4% in 2019 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 10.1 percentage points. These stocks gained 8.3% in 2020 through the end of May and still beat the market by 13.2 percentage points. Unfortunately FEYE wasn’t nearly as popular as these 10 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on FEYE were disappointed as the stock returned 18% during the second quarter (through the end of May) and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 10 most popular stocks among hedge funds as most of these stocks already outperformed the market in 2020.
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
