The Insider Monkey team has completed processing the quarterly 13F filings for the June 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 AllianceBernstein Holding LP (NYSE:AB).
Is AllianceBernstein Holding LP (NYSE:AB) a healthy stock for your portfolio? Hedge funds are getting more optimistic. The number of long hedge fund positions improved by 2 in recent months. Our calculations also showed that AB isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (see the video below).
Video: Click the image to watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.
In the eyes of most traders, hedge funds are assumed to be slow, outdated investment vehicles of yesteryear. While there are greater than 8000 funds in operation at present, Our experts hone in on the upper echelon of this group, around 750 funds. It is estimated that this group of investors watch over most of the smart money’s total capital, and by watching their unrivaled stock picks, Insider Monkey has unsheathed various investment strategies that have historically outrun the S&P 500 index. Insider Monkey’s flagship hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 index by around 5 percentage points per year since its inception in May 2014. We were able to generate large returns even by identifying short candidates. Our portfolio of short stocks lost 25.7% since February 2017 (through September 30th) even though the market was up more than 33% during the same period. We just shared a list of 10 short targets in our latest quarterly update .
Unlike former hedge manager, Dr. Steve Sjuggerud, who is convinced Dow will soar past 40000, our long-short investment strategy doesn’t rely on bull markets to deliver double digit returns. We only rely on hedge fund buy/sell signals. Let’s take a look at the latest hedge fund action regarding AllianceBernstein Holding LP (NYSE:AB).
Hedge fund activity in AllianceBernstein Holding LP (NYSE:AB)
At the end of the second quarter, a total of 10 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 25% from the previous quarter. On the other hand, there were a total of 9 hedge funds with a bullish position in AB 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, Royce & Associates held the most valuable stake in AllianceBernstein Holding LP (NYSE:AB), which was worth $11.5 million at the end of the second quarter. On the second spot was GAMCO Investors which amassed $3.1 million worth of shares. Moreover, Renaissance Technologies, Arrowstreet Capital, and Citadel Investment Group were also bullish on AllianceBernstein Holding LP (NYSE:AB), allocating a large percentage of their portfolios to this stock.
Now, specific money managers were breaking ground themselves. Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, initiated the most outsized position in AllianceBernstein Holding LP (NYSE:AB). Citadel Investment Group had $1.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management also initiated a $0.3 million position during the quarter. The only other fund with a brand new AB position is Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP.
Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as AllianceBernstein Holding LP (NYSE:AB) but similarly valued. These stocks are Intelsat S.A. (NYSE:I), Lithia Motors Inc (NYSE:LAD), Vonage Holdings Corp. (NYSE:VG), and TC Pipelines, LP (NYSE:TCP). This group of stocks’ market values match AB’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | 42 | 839597 | -12 |
| LAD | 21 | 550945 | 4 |
| VG | 39 | 361173 | 5 |
| TCP | 5 | 18940 | 0 |
| Average | 26.75 | 442664 | -0.75 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 26.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $443 million. That figure was $25 million in AB’s case. Intelsat S.A. (NYSE:I) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand TC Pipelines, LP (NYSE:TCP) is the least popular one with only 5 bullish hedge fund positions. AllianceBernstein Holding LP (NYSE:AB) 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 24.4% in 2019 through September 30th and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 4 percentage points. Unfortunately AB wasn’t nearly as popular as these 20 stocks (hedge fund sentiment was quite bearish); AB investors were disappointed as the stock returned 0.7% during the third 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 many of these stocks already outperformed the market so far in 2019.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
