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 821 13F filings submitted by hedge funds and prominent investors. These filings show these funds’ portfolio positions as of March 31st, 2020. In this article we are going to take a look at smart money sentiment towards Xenia Hotels & Resorts Inc (NYSE:XHR).
Is Xenia Hotels & Resorts Inc (NYSE:XHR) going to take off soon? The best stock pickers are taking a bearish view. The number of bullish hedge fund bets shrunk by 3 recently. Our calculations also showed that XHR 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.
If you’d ask most investors, hedge funds are viewed as unimportant, outdated investment vehicles of the past. While there are greater than 8000 funds with their doors open at the moment, We choose to focus on the bigwigs of this group, about 850 funds. It is estimated that this group of investors orchestrate the lion’s share of the hedge fund industry’s total asset base, and by watching their best picks, Insider Monkey has revealed various investment strategies that have historically outstripped Mr. Market. Insider Monkey’s flagship short hedge fund strategy surpassed the S&P 500 short ETFs by around 20 percentage points per year since its inception in March 2017. Our portfolio of short stocks lost 36% since February 2017 (through May 18th) even though the market was up 30% during the same period. We just shared a list of 8 short targets in our latest quarterly update .
Dmitry Balyasny of Balyasny Asset Management
At Insider Monkey we leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, We take a look at lists like the 10 most profitable companies in the world to identify the compounders that are likely to deliver double digit returns. 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. Now let’s take a glance at the latest hedge fund action encompassing Xenia Hotels & Resorts Inc (NYSE:XHR).
Hedge fund activity in Xenia Hotels & Resorts Inc (NYSE:XHR)
At the end of the first quarter, a total of 8 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of -27% from the previous quarter. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards XHR over the last 18 quarters. So, let’s find out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
Among these funds, Balyasny Asset Management held the most valuable stake in Xenia Hotels & Resorts Inc (NYSE:XHR), which was worth $5.6 million at the end of the third quarter. On the second spot was Citadel Investment Group which amassed $1.6 million worth of shares. Two Sigma Advisors, AQR Capital Management, and Renaissance Technologies were also very fond of the stock, becoming one of the largest hedge fund holders of the company. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Balyasny Asset Management allocated the biggest weight to Xenia Hotels & Resorts Inc (NYSE:XHR), around 0.07% of its 13F portfolio. Tudor Investment Corp is also relatively very bullish on the stock, setting aside 0.06 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to XHR.
Because Xenia Hotels & Resorts Inc (NYSE:XHR) has witnessed falling interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, logic holds that there was a specific group of money managers who were dropping their positions entirely heading into Q4. It’s worth mentioning that Richard Driehaus’s Driehaus Capital said goodbye to the biggest stake of the “upper crust” of funds tracked by Insider Monkey, comprising close to $4.7 million in stock, and Mika Toikka’s AlphaCrest Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $1.1 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 3 funds heading into Q4.
Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Xenia Hotels & Resorts Inc (NYSE:XHR). We will take a look at Steelcase Inc. (NYSE:SCS), First Bancorp (NYSE:FBP), Verra Mobility Corporation (NASDAQ:VRRM), and BrightView Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:BV). This group of stocks’ market caps match XHR’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| SCS | 23 | 64288 | -7 |
| FBP | 24 | 132891 | -8 |
| VRRM | 23 | 105855 | -10 |
| BV | 8 | 160603 | -1 |
| Average | 19.5 | 115909 | -6.5 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 19.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $116 million. That figure was $12 million in XHR’s case. First Bancorp (NYSE:FBP) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand BrightView Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:BV) is the least popular one with only 8 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Xenia Hotels & Resorts Inc (NYSE:XHR) is even less popular than BV. Hedge funds dodged a bullet by taking a bearish stance towards XHR. Our calculations showed that the top 10 most popular hedge fund stocks returned 41.4% in 2019 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 10.1 percentage points. These stocks gained 12.2% in 2020 through June 17th but managed to beat the market by 14.8 percentage points. Unfortunately XHR wasn’t nearly as popular as these 10 stocks (hedge fund sentiment was very bearish); XHR investors were disappointed as the stock returned 4.5% during the second quarter (through June 17th) and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 10 most popular stocks among hedge funds as most of these stocks already outperformed the market so far in 2020.
Follow Xenia Hotels & Resorts Inc. (NYSE:XHR)
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
