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 first 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 4.5 years and analyze what the smart money thinks of Costamare Inc (NYSE:CMRE) based on that data.
Is Costamare Inc (NYSE:CMRE) going to take off soon? Investors who are in the know are selling. The number of long hedge fund positions were cut by 3 in recent months. Our calculations also showed that CMRE isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings and see the video for a quick look at the top 5 stocks).
Video: Watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.
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 101% since March 2017 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by more than 58 percentage points. Our short strategy outperformed the S&P 500 short ETFs by 20 percentage points annually (see the details here). That’s why we believe hedge fund sentiment is a useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.
Louis Navellier of Navellier & Associates
At Insider Monkey we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, blockchain technology’s influence will go beyond online payments. So, we are checking out this futurist’s moonshot opportunities in tech stocks. We interview hedge fund managers and ask them about their best ideas. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. For example we are checking out stocks recommended/scorned by legendary Bill Miller. Our best call in 2020 was shorting the market when the S&P 500 was trading at 3150 in February after realizing the coronavirus pandemic’s significance before most investors. Keeping this in mind we’re going to check out the key hedge fund action surrounding Costamare Inc (NYSE:CMRE).
What have hedge funds been doing with Costamare Inc (NYSE:CMRE)?
Heading into the second quarter of 2020, a total of 14 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of -18% from the fourth quarter of 2019. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards CMRE over the last 18 quarters. So, let’s examine which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
The largest stake in Costamare Inc (NYSE:CMRE) was held by Renaissance Technologies, which reported holding $18.4 million worth of stock at the end of September. It was followed by Arrowstreet Capital with a $7.3 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included Navellier & Associates, Two Sigma Advisors, and Horizon Asset Management. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Navellier & Associates allocated the biggest weight to Costamare Inc (NYSE:CMRE), around 0.39% of its 13F portfolio. PDT Partners is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 0.06 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to CMRE.
Because Costamare Inc (NYSE:CMRE) has experienced bearish sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, logic holds that there exists a select few hedgies who sold off their positions entirely last quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Peter Algert and Kevin Coldiron’s Algert Coldiron Investors cut the biggest position of all the hedgies monitored by Insider Monkey, comprising close to $1.8 million in stock. Ken Griffin’s fund, Citadel Investment Group, also cut its stock, about $1.1 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 3 funds last quarter.
Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Costamare Inc (NYSE:CMRE) but similarly valued. These stocks are Argan, Inc. (NYSE:AGX), Star Bulk Carriers Corp. (NASDAQ:SBLK), MBIA Inc. (NYSE:MBI), and EnLink Midstream LLC (NYSE:ENLC). This group of stocks’ market valuations match CMRE’s market valuation.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| AGX | 12 | 69554 | -1 |
| SBLK | 11 | 255482 | -5 |
| MBI | 15 | 108148 | -9 |
| ENLC | 7 | 14255 | -4 |
| Average | 11.25 | 111860 | -4.75 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 11.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $112 million. That figure was $33 million in CMRE’s case. MBIA Inc. (NYSE:MBI) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand EnLink Midstream LLC (NYSE:ENLC) is the least popular one with only 7 bullish hedge fund positions. Costamare Inc (NYSE:CMRE) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our calculations showed that top 10 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 41.4% in 2019 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 10.1 percentage points. These stocks gained 13.3% in 2020 through June 25th but still beat the market by 16.8 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on CMRE as the stock returned 27.5% in Q2 (through June 25th) and outperformed the market. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
