At Insider Monkey, we pore over the filings of nearly 867 top investment firms every quarter, a process we have now completed for the latest reporting period. The data we’ve gathered as a result gives us access to a wealth of collective knowledge based on these firms’ portfolio holdings as of September 30th. In this article, we will use that wealth of knowledge to determine whether or not Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corporation (NYSE:VAC) makes for a good investment right now.
Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corporation (NYSE:VAC) was in 23 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2021. The all time high for this statistic is 35. VAC has experienced a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money in recent months. There were 35 hedge funds in our database with VAC holdings at the end of June. Our calculations also showed that VAC isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings).
Matthew Hulsizer of PEAK6 Capital
At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, lithium prices have more than doubled over the past year, so 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. Now let’s check out the key hedge fund action regarding Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corporation (NYSE:VAC).
Do Hedge Funds Think VAC Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
At third quarter’s end, a total of 23 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of -34% from the second quarter of 2021. By comparison, 17 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in VAC a year ago. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).
The largest stake in Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corporation (NYSE:VAC) was held by Rima Senvest Management, which reported holding $210.9 million worth of stock at the end of September. It was followed by Tremblant Capital with a $111.5 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included Citadel Investment Group, Zimmer Partners, and D E Shaw. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Yarra Square Partners allocated the biggest weight to Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corporation (NYSE:VAC), around 8.33% of its 13F portfolio. Rima Senvest Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 6.03 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to VAC.
Because Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corporation (NYSE:VAC) has witnessed falling interest from the smart money, it’s safe to say that there is a sect of funds that decided to sell off their positions entirely by the end of the third quarter. At the top of the heap, Gabriel Plotkin’s Melvin Capital Management dropped the biggest position of the “upper crust” of funds followed by Insider Monkey, comprising an estimated $47.8 million in stock. Anthony Joseph Vaccarino’s fund, North Fourth Asset Management, also said goodbye to its stock, about $8.5 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 12 funds by the end of the third quarter.
Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corporation (NYSE:VAC) but similarly valued. These stocks are Axalta Coating Systems Ltd (NYSE:AXTA), Celsius Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CELH), Kornit Digital Ltd. (NASDAQ:KRNT), Sportradar Group AG (NASDAQ:SRAD), Fiverr International Ltd. (NYSE:FVRR), AngloGold Ashanti Limited (NYSE:AU), and Exelixis, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXEL). This group of stocks’ market caps resemble VAC’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| AXTA | 37 | 1048946 | -10 |
| CELH | 22 | 220511 | 2 |
| KRNT | 22 | 287826 | 1 |
| SRAD | 30 | 158145 | 30 |
| FVRR | 29 | 520429 | -1 |
| AU | 10 | 327927 | -2 |
| EXEL | 30 | 896585 | -3 |
| Average | 25.7 | 494338 | 2.4 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 25.7 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $494 million. That figure was $751 million in VAC’s case. Axalta Coating Systems Ltd (NYSE:AXTA) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand AngloGold Ashanti Limited (NYSE:AU) is the least popular one with only 10 bullish hedge fund positions. Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corporation (NYSE:VAC) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for VAC is 36.8. 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 negative signal and 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 31.1% in 2021 through December 9th and surpassed the market again by 5.1 percentage points. Unfortunately VAC wasn’t nearly as popular as these 5 stocks (hedge fund sentiment was quite bearish); VAC investors were disappointed as the stock returned 2.5% since the end of September (through 12/9) 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 most of these stocks already outperformed the market in 2021.
Follow Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corp (NYSE:VAC)
Follow Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corp (NYSE:VAC)
Suggested Articles:
- 10 Most Anticipated IPOs in 2021 and 2022
- 10 Best Undervalued Stocks to Buy Now
- 10 Best Tech Stocks to Buy According to Japanese Billionaire Masayoshi Son
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
