The latest 13F reporting period has come and gone, and Insider Monkey is again at the forefront when it comes to making use of this gold mine of data. Insider Monkey finished processing 867 13F filings submitted by hedge funds and prominent investors. These filings show these funds’ portfolio positions as of September 30th, 2021. What do these smart investors think about Fidelity National Financial Inc (NYSE:FNF)?
Fidelity National Financial Inc (NYSE:FNF) was in 32 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. The all time high for this statistic is 47. FNF shareholders have witnessed a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money of late. There were 34 hedge funds in our database with FNF positions at the end of the second quarter. Our calculations also showed that FNF isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings).
Charles Clough of Clough Capital Partners
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 take a look at the key hedge fund action surrounding Fidelity National Financial Inc (NYSE:FNF).
Do Hedge Funds Think FNF Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
At third quarter’s end, a total of 32 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of -6% from the second quarter of 2021. By comparison, 44 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in FNF a year ago. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were adding to their holdings meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).
The largest stake in Fidelity National Financial Inc (NYSE:FNF) was held by Brave Warrior Capital, which reported holding $398.6 million worth of stock at the end of September. It was followed by Windacre Partnership with a $313.1 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included MFN Partners, Millennium Management, and Parsifal Capital Management. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Brave Warrior Capital allocated the biggest weight to Fidelity National Financial Inc (NYSE:FNF), around 13.96% of its 13F portfolio. MFN Partners is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 8.11 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to FNF.
Due to the fact that Fidelity National Financial Inc (NYSE:FNF) has faced bearish sentiment from the smart money, it’s easy to see that there is a sect of money managers who sold off their entire stakes last quarter. Interestingly, Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management sold off the largest stake of the 750 funds monitored by Insider Monkey, comprising close to $15.3 million in stock, and Qing Li’s Sciencast Management was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $1.3 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 2 funds last quarter.
Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Fidelity National Financial Inc (NYSE:FNF). We will take a look at Lincoln National Corporation (NYSE:LNC), SoFi Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:SOFI), Discovery Inc. (NASDAQ:DISCA), Whirlpool Corporation (NYSE:WHR), Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc (NYSE:SC), Aluminum Corp. of China Limited (NYSE:ACH), and Kimco Realty Corp (NYSE:KIM). All of these stocks’ market caps resemble FNF’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| LNC | 29 | 734657 | -1 |
| SOFI | 33 | 852850 | -6 |
| DISCA | 42 | 515818 | -2 |
| WHR | 29 | 1134128 | -3 |
| SC | 18 | 752098 | -8 |
| ACH | 7 | 20331 | 3 |
| KIM | 21 | 152556 | 1 |
| Average | 25.6 | 594634 | -2.3 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 25.6 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $595 million. That figure was $1391 million in FNF’s case. Discovery Inc. (NASDAQ:DISCA) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Aluminum Corp. of China Limited (NYSE:ACH) is the least popular one with only 7 bullish hedge fund positions. Fidelity National Financial Inc (NYSE:FNF) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for FNF is 59.1. 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. 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 28.6% in 2021 through November 30th and still beat the market by 5.6 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on FNF as the stock returned 7.9% since the end of Q3 (through 11/30) and outperformed the market. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.
Follow Fidelity National Financial Inc (Old Filings) (NYSE:FNF)
Follow Fidelity National Financial Inc (Old Filings) (NYSE:FNF)
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
