Hedge Funds Are Buying Mohawk Industries, Inc. (MHK)

After several tireless days we have finished crunching the numbers from the more than 700 13F filings issued by the elite hedge funds and other investment firms that we track at Insider Monkey, which disclosed those firms’ equity portfolios as of September 30. The results of that effort will be put on display in this article, as we share valuable insight into the smart money sentiment towards Mohawk Industries, Inc. (NYSE:MHK).

Mohawk Industries, Inc. (NYSE:MHK) was in 64 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. MHK shareholders have witnessed an increase in hedge fund interest of late. There were 59 hedge funds in our database with MHK 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 Invesco Ltd. (NYSE:IVZ), SBA Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:SBAC), and Vale SA (ADR) (NYSE:VALE) to gather more data points.

In today’s marketplace there are many tools stock traders put to use to analyze their stock investments. Some of the less known tools are hedge fund and insider trading moves. We have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best investment managers can outperform the broader indices by a healthy amount (see the details here).

With all of this in mind, we’re going to take a look at the key action regarding Mohawk Industries, Inc. (NYSE:MHK).

Hedge fund activity in Mohawk Industries, Inc. (NYSE:MHK)

At Q3’s end, a total of 64 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, an increase of 8% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings significantly (or already accumulated large positions).

According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Third Point, managed by Dan Loeb, holds the number one position in Mohawk Industries, Inc. (NYSE:MHK). The fund reportedly holds a $390.8 million stake in the company, comprising 3.7% of its 13F portfolio. On Third Point’s heels is Viking Global, led by Andreas Halvorsen, holding a $359.8 million position; the fund has 1.4% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other professional money managers that are bullish contain Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital, Robert Joseph Caruso’s Select Equity Group and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

As industrywide interest jumped, key hedge funds were breaking ground themselves. Hitchwood Capital Management, managed by James Crichton, initiated the largest position in Mohawk Industries, Inc. (NYSE:MHK). According to its latest 13F filing, the fund had $109.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Gabriel Plotkin’s Melvin Capital Management also made a $44.5 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new MHK investors: Christopher A. Winham’s Tide Point Capital, John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors, and Peter Muller’s PDT Partners.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Mohawk Industries, Inc. (NYSE:MHK) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Invesco Ltd. (NYSE:IVZ), SBA Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:SBAC), Vale SA (ADR) (NYSE:VALE), and Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ:SYMC). This group of stocks’ market caps are closest to MHK’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 37 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $873 million. SBA Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:SBAC) is the most popular stock in this table, while Vale SA (ADR) (NYSE:VALE) is at the other end of the specter with only 24 bullish hedge fund positions. Mohawk Industries, Inc. (NYSE:MHK) is the superstar of this group, having attracted $2.87 billion in investments from 64 elite funds. Seeing that this company attracts much more attention in relation to its market cap peers, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and potentially include it in your portfolio.