Does The First of Long Island Corporation (NASDAQ:FLIC) represent a good buying opportunity at the moment? Let’s quickly check the hedge fund interest towards the company. Hedge fund firms constantly search out bright intellectuals and highly-experienced employees and throw away millions of dollars on satellite photos and other research activities, so it is no wonder why they tend to generate millions in profits each year. It is also true that some hedge fund players fail inconceivably on some occasions, but net net their stock picks have been generating superior risk-adjusted returns on average over the years.
Is The First of Long Island Corporation (NASDAQ:FLIC) a first-rate investment right now? Hedge funds are getting more bullish. The number of bullish hedge fund bets inched up by 1 in recent months. Our calculations also showed that FLIC isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings and see the video below for Q2 rankings). FLIC was in 10 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. There were 9 hedge funds in our database with FLIC positions at the end of the previous quarter.
Video: Click the image to watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.
Why do we pay any attention at all to hedge fund sentiment? Our research has shown that hedge funds’ large-cap stock picks indeed failed to beat the market between 1999 and 2016. However, we were able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that outperformed the Russell 2000 ETFs by 40 percentage points since May 2014 (see the details here). We were also able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that’ll significantly underperform the market. We have been tracking and sharing the list of these stocks since February 2017 and they lost 27.8% through November 21, 2019. That’s why we believe hedge fund sentiment is an extremely useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.
Michael Price of MFP Investors
We leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example Discover is offering this insane cashback card, so we look into shorting the stock. 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 even check out this option genius’ weekly trade ideas. This December we recommended Adams Energy based on an under-the-radar fund manager’s investor letter and the stock gained 20 percent. We’re going to go over the recent hedge fund action encompassing The First of Long Island Corporation (NASDAQ:FLIC).
What have hedge funds been doing with The First of Long Island Corporation (NASDAQ:FLIC)?
At Q3’s end, a total of 10 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 11% from the previous quarter. On the other hand, there were a total of 12 hedge funds with a bullish position in FLIC 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.
According to Insider Monkey’s hedge fund database, Renaissance Technologies has the number one position in The First of Long Island Corporation (NASDAQ:FLIC), worth close to $16.1 million, amounting to less than 0.1%% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Diamond Hill Capital, managed by Ric Dillon, which holds a $9.7 million position; 0.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining members of the smart money that are bullish comprise Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Richard Chilton’s Chilton Investment Company and Michael Price’s MFP Investors. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position MFP Investors allocated the biggest weight to The First of Long Island Corporation (NASDAQ:FLIC), around 0.27% of its 13F portfolio. Chilton Investment Company is also relatively very bullish on the stock, designating 0.1 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to FLIC.
With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, specific money managers were breaking ground themselves. Winton Capital Management, managed by David Harding, established the largest position in The First of Long Island Corporation (NASDAQ:FLIC). Winton Capital Management had $1.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital also made a $0.2 million investment in the stock during the quarter.
Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to The First of Long Island Corporation (NASDAQ:FLIC). These stocks are Tufin Software Technologies Ltd. (NYSE:TUFN), Autolus Therapeutics plc (NASDAQ:AUTL), Denbury Resources Inc. (NYSE:DNR), and Quad/Graphics, Inc. (NYSE:QUAD). This group of stocks’ market caps match FLIC’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| TUFN | 7 | 7950 | 1 |
| AUTL | 11 | 63408 | -2 |
| DNR | 11 | 19387 | 1 |
| QUAD | 9 | 15228 | -7 |
| Average | 9.5 | 26493 | -1.75 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 9.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $26 million. That figure was $40 million in FLIC’s case. Autolus Therapeutics plc (NASDAQ:AUTL) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Tufin Software Technologies Ltd. (NYSE:TUFN) is the least popular one with only 7 bullish hedge fund positions. The First of Long Island Corporation (NASDAQ:FLIC) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. 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. Hedge funds were also right about betting on FLIC, though not to the same extent, as the stock returned 7.4% during the first two months of the fourth quarter and outperformed the market as well.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
