Hedge Funds Are Crazy About Xilinx, Inc. (XLNX)

The SEC requires hedge funds and wealthy investors with over a certain portfolio size to file a report that shows their positions at the end of every quarter. Even though it isn’t the intention, these filings level the playing field for ordinary investors. The latest round of 13F filings discloses the funds’ positions on September 30. We at Insider Monkey have compiled an extensive database of more than 700 of those elite funds and prominent investors’ filings. In this article, we analyze how these elite funds and prominent investors traded Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ:XLNX) based on those filings.

Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ:XLNX) shareholders have witnessed an increase in hedge fund sentiment in recent months. 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 D.R. Horton, Inc. (NYSE:DHI), Extra Space Storage, Inc. (NYSE:EXR), and CGI Group Inc. (USA) (NYSE:GIB) 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, let’s go over the recent action surrounding Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ:XLNX).

Hedge fund activity in Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ:XLNX)

At Q3’s end, a total of 41 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 14% from the second quarter of 2016. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes considerably (or already accumulated large positions).

Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Clifton S. Robbins’ Blue Harbour Group has the number one position in Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ:XLNX), worth close to $422.4 million, accounting for 15.6% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Alkeon Capital Management, led by Panayotis Takis Sparaggis, holding a $112.9 million position; the fund has 2.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedge funds and institutional investors that are bullish consist of Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies, and Cliff Asness’ AQR Capital Management.

With a general bullishness among the heavyweights, specific money managers have jumped into Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ:XLNX) headfirst. Criterion Capital, managed by Christopher Lord, initiated the largest call position in Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ:XLNX). Criterion Capital had $18.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Andrew Sandler’s Sandler Capital Management also made a $17.3 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new XLNX investors: John Burbank’s Passport Capital, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ:XLNX) but similarly valued. We will take a look at D.R. Horton, Inc. (NYSE:DHI), Extra Space Storage, Inc. (NYSE:EXR), CGI Group Inc. (USA) (NYSE:GIB), and Alliance Data Systems Corporation (NYSE:ADS). This group of stocks’ market valuations match XLNX’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 27.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $700 million. That figure was $1.17 billion in XLNX’s case. D.R. Horton, Inc. (NYSE:DHI) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand CGI Group Inc. (USA) (NYSE:GIB) is the least popular one with only 16 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ:XLNX) is more popular among hedge funds. Considering that hedge funds are fond of this stock 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.