A whopping number of 13F filings filed with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has been processed by Insider Monkey so that individual investors can look at the overall hedge fund sentiment towards the stocks included in their watchlists. These freshly-submitted public filings disclose money managers’ equity positions as of the end of the three-month period that ended September 30, so let’s proceed with the discussion of the hedge fund sentiment on Golar LNG Partners LP (NASDAQ:GMLP).
Is Golar LNG Partners LP (NASDAQ:GMLP) going to take off soon? The best stock pickers are definitely becoming hopeful. The number of bullish hedge fund investments strengthened by 2 in recent months. GMLP was in 8 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. There were 6 hedge funds in our database with GMLP holdings at the end of June. The level and the change in hedge fund popularity aren’t the only variables you need to analyze to decipher hedge funds’ perspectives. A stock may witness a boost in popularity but it may still be less popular than similarly priced stocks. That’s why at the end of this article we will examine companies such as Air Methods Corp (NASDAQ:AIRM), SeaWorld Entertainment Inc (NYSE:SEAS), and Allianzgi NFJ Dividend int & Prm Stgy Fd (NYSE:NFJ) to gather more data points.
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Hedge fund activity in Golar LNG Partners LP (NASDAQ:GMLP)
Heading into the fourth quarter of 2016, a total of 8 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a gain of 33% from the second quarter of 2016. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish positions in GMLP over the last 5 quarters, which has doubled during that time. So, let’s examine which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Joe Huber’s Huber Capital Management has the largest position in Golar LNG Partners LP (NASDAQ:GMLP), worth close to $52 million, amounting to 2% of its total 13F portfolio. On Huber Capital Management’s heels is John Thiessen’s Vertex One Asset Management, holding a $4.2 million position. Remaining hedge funds and institutional investors with similar optimism include Millennium Management, one of the 10 largest hedge funds in the world, Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies, and Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management. We should note that none of these hedge funds are among our list of the 100 best performing hedge funds, which is based on the performance of their 13F long positions in non-micro-cap stocks.
Consequently, key hedge funds were breaking ground themselves. Vertex One Asset Management created the most valuable position in Golar LNG Partners LP (NASDAQ:GMLP). Vertex One Asset Management had $4.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Renaissance Technologies also made a $0.6 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The only other fund with a brand new GMLP position was Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.
Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Golar LNG Partners LP (NASDAQ:GMLP) but similarly valued. These stocks are Air Methods Corp (NASDAQ:AIRM), SeaWorld Entertainment Inc (NYSE:SEAS), Allianzgi NFJ Dividend int & Prm Stgy Fd (NYSE:NFJ), and Dermira Inc (NASDAQ:DERM). This group of stocks’ market valuations resemble GMLP’s market valuation.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIRM | 17 | 103359 | 2 |
| SEAS | 14 | 105794 | -2 |
| NFJ | 3 | 17148 | 0 |
| DERM | 29 | 204585 | 5 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 16 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $108 million. That figure was $59 million in GMLP’s case. Dermira Inc (NASDAQ:DERM) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Allianzgi NFJ Dividend int & Prm Stgy Fd (NYSE:NFJ) is the least popular one with only 3 bullish hedge fund positions. Golar LNG Partners LP (NASDAQ:GMLP) 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. In this regard DERM might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.
Disclosure: None
