The Insider Monkey team has completed processing the quarterly 13F filings for the September quarter submitted by the hedge funds and other money managers included in our extensive database. Most hedge fund investors experienced strong gains on the back of a strong market performance, which certainly propelled them to adjust their equity holdings so as to maintain the desired risk profile. As a result, the relevancy of these public filings and their content is indisputable, as they may reveal numerous high-potential stocks. The following article will discuss the smart money sentiment towards Fluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:FLNT).
Fluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:FLNT) investors should be aware of a decrease in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds recently. Our calculations also showed that FLNT 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.
If you’d ask most investors, hedge funds are assumed to be worthless, old investment vehicles of yesteryear. While there are over 8000 funds trading today, Our researchers choose to focus on the crème de la crème of this club, approximately 750 funds. These investment experts handle the lion’s share of the smart money’s total asset base, and by monitoring their best investments, Insider Monkey has found a number of investment strategies that have historically outstripped the S&P 500 index. Insider Monkey’s flagship short hedge fund strategy outpaced the S&P 500 short ETFs by around 20 percentage points a year since its inception in May 2014. Our portfolio of short stocks lost 27.8% since February 2017 (through November 21st) even though the market was up more than 39% during the same period. We just shared a list of 7 short targets in our latest quarterly update .
Paul Marshall of Marshall Wace
We leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example Europe is set to become the world’s largest cannabis market, so we check out this European marijuana stock pitch. 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 also rely on the best performing hedge funds‘ buy/sell signals. We’re going to take a gander at the new hedge fund action surrounding Fluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:FLNT).
Hedge fund activity in Fluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:FLNT)
Heading into the fourth quarter of 2019, a total of 8 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of -11% from the previous quarter. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards FLNT over the last 17 quarters. 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, AQR Capital Management held the most valuable stake in Fluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:FLNT), which was worth $2.2 million at the end of the third quarter. On the second spot was Renaissance Technologies which amassed $0.9 million worth of shares. Millennium Management, Arrowstreet Capital, and D E Shaw 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 Algert Coldiron Investors allocated the biggest weight to Fluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:FLNT), around 0.05% of its 13F portfolio. AQR Capital Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, dishing out 0.0026 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to FLNT.
Judging by the fact that Fluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:FLNT) has witnessed bearish sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, we can see that there exists a select few money managers who sold off their full holdings last quarter. At the top of the heap, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group sold off the biggest stake of the 750 funds watched by Insider Monkey, comprising close to $0.3 million in stock. Mike Vranos’s fund, Ellington, also dropped its stock, about $0.2 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest fell by 1 funds last quarter.
Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Fluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:FLNT) but similarly valued. These stocks are SeaDrill Limited (NYSE:SDRL), Earthstone Energy, Inc. (NYSE:ESTE), Stereotaxis Inc (NYSE:STXS), and First Business Financial Services Inc (NASDAQ:FBIZ). This group of stocks’ market values are similar to FLNT’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| SDRL | 17 | 53253 | -1 |
| ESTE | 8 | 856 | 1 |
| STXS | 7 | 90884 | 6 |
| FBIZ | 3 | 6962 | 1 |
| Average | 8.75 | 37989 | 1.75 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 8.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $38 million. That figure was $5 million in FLNT’s case. SeaDrill Limited (NYSE:SDRL) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand First Business Financial Services Inc (NASDAQ:FBIZ) is the least popular one with only 3 bullish hedge fund positions. Fluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:FLNT) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. 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. Unfortunately FLNT wasn’t nearly as popular as these 20 stocks (hedge fund sentiment was quite bearish); FLNT investors were disappointed as the stock returned -40.1% during the first two months of the fourth quarter and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds as 70 percent of these stocks already outperformed the market in Q4.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
