Hedge Funds Are Buzzing About Echostar Corporation (SATS)

A whopping number of 13F filings filed with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has been processed by Insider Monkey so that individual investors can look at the overall hedge fund sentiment towards the stocks included in their watchlists. These freshly-submitted public filings disclose money managers’ equity positions as of the end of the three-month period that ended September 30, so let’s proceed with the discussion of the hedge fund sentiment on Echostar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS).

Echostar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS) was in 28 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2016. SATS shareholders have witnessed an increase in hedge fund sentiment of late. There were 23 hedge funds in our database with SATS holdings 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 BWX Technologies Inc (NYSE:BWXT), Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc (NYSE:SC), and Microsemi Corporation (NASDAQ:MSCC) to gather more data points.

At Insider Monkey, we’ve developed an investment strategy that has delivered market-beating returns over the past 12 months. Our strategy identifies the 100 best-performing funds of the previous quarter from among the collection of 700+ successful funds that we track in our database, which we accomplish using our returns methodology. We then study the portfolios of those 100 funds using the latest 13F data to uncover the 30 most popular mid-cap stocks (market caps of between $1 billion and $10 billion) among them to hold until the next filing period. This strategy delivered 18% gains over the past 12 months, more than doubling the 8% returns enjoyed by the S&P 500 ETFs.

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With all of this in mind, we’re going to check out the new action surrounding Echostar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS).

Hedge fund activity in Echostar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS)

Heading into the fourth quarter of 2016, a total of 28 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a 22% climb from the previous quarter. Ownership of the stock among top hedge funds has now nearly rebounded to where it was a year earlier. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings considerably (or already accumulated large positions).

Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, holds the number one position in Echostar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS). Renaissance Technologies has a $108.5 million position in the stock. The second most bullish fund manager is Kensico Capital, led by Michael Lowenstein, holding a $64.9 million position; the fund has 1.2% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedge funds and institutional investors with similar optimism comprise Nathaniel August’s Mangrove Partners, Murray Stahl’s Horizon Asset Management and Joseph A. Jolson’s Harvest Capital Strategies.

As industrywide interest jumped, key money managers have been driving this bullishness. Glenhill Advisors, managed by Glenn J. Krevlin, initiated the biggest position in Echostar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS). Glenhill Advisors had $9.6 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Ari Zweiman’s 683 Capital Partners also initiated a $6.5 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new SATS positions are Sheetal Duggal’s Thrax Management, Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management, and Francis Cueto’s Asturias Capital.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Echostar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS) but similarly valued. We will take a look at BWX Technologies Inc (NYSE:BWXT), Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc (NYSE:SC), Microsemi Corporation (NASDAQ:MSCC), and BBVA Banco Frances S.A. (ADR) (NYSE:BFR). This group of stocks’ market valuations are closest to SATS’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 23.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $336 million. That figure was $461 million in SATS’ case. BWX Technologies Inc (NYSE:BWXT) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand BBVA Banco Frances S.A. (ADR) (NYSE:BFR) is the least popular one with only 11 bullish hedge fund positions. Echostar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal, as we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard both SATS and BWXT might be good candidates to consider long positions in.

Disclosure: None