The 700+ hedge funds and money managers tracked by Insider Monkey have already compiled and submitted their 13F filings for the third quarter, which unveil their equity positions as of September 30. We went through these filings, fixed typos and other more significant errors and identified the changes in hedge fund positions. Our extensive review of these public filings is finally over, so this article is set to reveal the smart money sentiment towards Ardmore Shipping Corp (NYSE:ASC).
Ardmore Shipping Corp (NYSE:ASC) was in 10 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. ASC shareholders have witnessed an increase in support from the world’s most successful money managers lately. There were 6 hedge funds in our database with ASC positions at the end of the previous quarter. 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 Mobileiron Inc (NASDAQ:MOBL), Datalink Corporation (NASDAQ:DTLK), and Tandem Diabetes Care Inc (NASDAQ:TNDM) to gather more data points.
We care about hedge fund sentiment because historically hedge funds’ stock picks delivered strong risk adjusted returns. There are certain segments of the market where hedge funds’ stock picks performed much better than its benchmarks. For instance, the 30 most popular mid-cap stocks among the best performing hedge funds returned 18% over the last 12 months outpacing S&P 500 Index by more than 10 percentage points. We developed this strategy 2.5 years ago and started sharing its picks in our quarterly newsletter. It bested the S&P 500 Index ETFs by delivering a solid 39% vs. 22% gain for its benchmarks.
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Keeping this in mind, let’s go over the fresh action surrounding Ardmore Shipping Corp (NYSE:ASC).
How have hedgies been trading Ardmore Shipping Corp (NYSE:ASC)?
At Q3’s end, a total of 10 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a boost of 67% from one quarter earlier. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in ASC over the last 5 quarters. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings significantly (or already accumulated large positions).
According to Insider Monkey’s hedge fund database, Royce & Associates, led by Chuck Royce, holds the largest position in Ardmore Shipping Corp (NYSE:ASC). According to its latest 13F filing, the fund has an $8.5 million position in the stock, comprising 0.1% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Portolan Capital Management, led by George McCabe, which manages a $1.8 million position; 0.3% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining professional money managers that hold long positions encompass Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, D E Shaw, one of the biggest hedge funds in the world and Gregory Fraser, Rudolph Kluiber, and Timothy Krochuk’s GRT Capital Partners. We should note that GRT Capital Partners is among our list of the 100 best performing hedge funds which is based on the performance of their 13F long positions in non-microcap stocks.
As aggregate interest increased, key hedge funds were leading the bulls’ herd. George McCabe’s Portolan Capital Management initiated the biggest position in Ardmore Shipping Corp (NYSE:ASC). Gregory Fraser, Rudolph Kluiber, and Timothy Krochuk’s GRT Capital Partners also initiated a $0.3 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management, and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.
Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Ardmore Shipping Corp (NYSE:ASC) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Mobileiron Inc (NASDAQ:MOBL), Datalink Corporation (NASDAQ:DTLK), Tandem Diabetes Care Inc (NASDAQ:TNDM), and Enzo Biochem, Inc. (NYSE:ENZ). This group of stocks’ market valuations resemble ASC’s market valuation.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| MOBL | 10 | 10670 | 2 |
| DTLK | 13 | 25588 | 2 |
| TNDM | 12 | 34239 | 1 |
| ENZ | 12 | 17117 | 0 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 12 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $22 million. That figure was $13 million in ASC’s case. Datalink Corporation (NASDAQ:DTLK) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Mobileiron Inc (NASDAQ:MOBL) is the least popular one with only 10 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Ardmore Shipping Corp (NYSE:ASC) is even less popular than MOBL. Considering that hedge funds aren’t fond of this stock in relation to other companies analyzed in this article, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and understand why the smart money isn’t behind this stock. This isn’t necessarily bad news. Although it is possible that hedge funds may think the stock is overpriced and view the stock as a short candidate, they may not be very familiar with the bullish thesis. In either case more research is warranted.
Disclosure: none.
