Insider Monkey has processed numerous 13F filings of hedge funds and successful value investors to create an extensive database of hedge fund holdings. The 13F filings show the hedge funds’ and successful investors’ positions as of the end of the fourth quarter. You can find articles about an individual hedge fund’s trades on numerous financial news websites. However, in this article we will take a look at their collective moves over the last 6 years and analyze what the smart money thinks of Unum Group (NYSE:UNM) based on that data.
Unum Group (NYSE:UNM) was in 33 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of March. The all time high for this statistic was previously 30. This means the bullish number of hedge fund positions in this stock currently sits at its all time high. UNM investors should pay attention to an increase in hedge fund interest in recent months. There were 25 hedge funds in our database with UNM positions at the end of the fourth quarter. Our calculations also showed that UNM isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings).
In the financial world there are a large number of tools investors have at their disposal to grade stocks. A pair of the most under-the-radar tools are hedge fund and insider trading indicators. We have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best fund managers can outperform the broader indices by a solid amount. Insider Monkey’s monthly stock picks returned 206.8% since March 2017 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by more than 115 percentage points (see the details here). That’s why we believe hedge fund sentiment is a useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.
Ryan Tolkin, CIO of Schonfeld Strategic Advisors
At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, lithium mining is one of the fastest growing industries right now, so we are checking out stock pitches like this emerging lithium stock. We go through lists like the 10 best EV stocks to pick the next Tesla that will deliver a 10x return. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. You can subscribe to our free daily newsletter on our homepage. Now we’re going to check out the key hedge fund action regarding Unum Group (NYSE:UNM).
Do Hedge Funds Think UNM Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
At the end of March, a total of 33 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 32% from the fourth quarter of 2020. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards UNM over the last 23 quarters. So, let’s review which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
Among these funds, Arrowstreet Capital held the most valuable stake in Unum Group (NYSE:UNM), which was worth $115.4 million at the end of the fourth quarter. On the second spot was AQR Capital Management which amassed $46.9 million worth of shares. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors, Citadel Investment Group, and Two Sigma Advisors were also very fond of the stock, becoming one of the largest hedge fund holders of the company. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Diametric Capital allocated the biggest weight to Unum Group (NYSE:UNM), around 0.94% of its 13F portfolio. Quantinno Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, setting aside 0.63 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to UNM.
Consequently, some big names have been driving this bullishness. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors, managed by Ryan Tolkin (CIO), established the biggest call position in Unum Group (NYSE:UNM). Schonfeld Strategic Advisors had $46.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management also made a $6.6 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Ian Simm’s Impax Asset Management, Richard SchimeláandáLawrence Sapanski’s Cinctive Capital Management, and Alec Litowitz and Ross Laser’s Magnetar Capital.
Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Unum Group (NYSE:UNM). We will take a look at PLDT Inc. (NYSE:PHI), Eagle Materials, Inc. (NYSE:EXP), Haemonetics Corporation (NYSE:HAE), NeoGenomics, Inc. (NASDAQ:NEO), Blueprint Medicines Corporation (NASDAQ:BPMC), Rexnord Corp (NYSE:RXN), and Adaptive Biotechnologies Corporation (NASDAQ:ADPT). This group of stocks’ market values resemble UNM’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| PHI | 4 | 86933 | 0 |
| EXP | 35 | 348037 | -2 |
| HAE | 37 | 585529 | 5 |
| NEO | 15 | 80571 | 0 |
| BPMC | 31 | 1058340 | -7 |
| RXN | 25 | 383506 | 5 |
| ADPT | 29 | 2138890 | -1 |
| Average | 25.1 | 668829 | 0 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 25.1 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $669 million. That figure was $284 million in UNM’s case. Haemonetics Corporation (NYSE:HAE) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand PLDT Inc. (NYSE:PHI) is the least popular one with only 4 bullish hedge fund positions. Unum Group (NYSE:UNM) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for UNM is 83.9. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. Our calculations showed that top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 95.8% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 40 percentage points. These stocks gained 22.8% in 2021 through July 2nd and beat the market again by 6 percentage points. Unfortunately UNM wasn’t nearly as popular as these 5 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on UNM were disappointed as the stock returned 4.1% since the end of March (through 7/2) and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds as many of these stocks already outperformed the market since 2019.
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
