Hedge Funds Are Warming Up To Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. (ASPS)

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. We at Insider Monkey have plowed through 821 13F filings that hedge funds and well-known value investors are required to file by the SEC. The 13F filings show the funds’ and investors’ portfolio positions as of March 31st, a week after the market trough. In this article we look at what those investors think of Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. (NASDAQ:ASPS).

Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. (NASDAQ:ASPS) shareholders have witnessed an increase in support from the world’s most elite money managers of late. Our calculations also showed that ASPS 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.

Peter Rathjens of Arrowstreet Capital

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. Keeping this in mind let’s view the recent hedge fund action regarding Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. (NASDAQ:ASPS).

How have hedgies been trading Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. (NASDAQ:ASPS)?

At Q1’s end, a total of 8 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 14% from the previous quarter. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in ASPS 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.

The largest stake in Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. (NASDAQ:ASPS) was held by Renaissance Technologies, which reported holding $5.9 million worth of stock at the end of September. It was followed by D E Shaw with a $0.4 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included Engineers Gate Manager, Diametric Capital, and Two Sigma Advisors. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Diametric Capital allocated the biggest weight to Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. (NASDAQ:ASPS), around 0.34% of its 13F portfolio. Engineers Gate Manager is also relatively very bullish on the stock, setting aside 0.02 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to ASPS.

As one would reasonably expect, specific money managers have been driving this bullishness. Engineers Gate Manager, managed by Greg Eisner, assembled the biggest position in Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. (NASDAQ:ASPS). Engineers Gate Manager had $0.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Nick Thakore’s Diametric Capital also initiated a $0.3 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new ASPS investors: John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors, Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital, and Gavin Saitowitz and Cisco J. del Valle’s Springbok Capital.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. (NASDAQ:ASPS) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Advanced Emissions Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADES), Enzo Biochem, Inc. (NYSE:ENZ), Evans Bancorp Inc. (NYSE:EVBN), and Mayville Engineering Company, Inc. (NYSE:MEC). This group of stocks’ market values are closest to ASPS’s market value.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 5.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $13 million. That figure was $8 million in ASPS’s case. Enzo Biochem, Inc. (NYSE:ENZ) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Evans Bancorp Inc. (NYSE:EVBN) is the least popular one with only 2 bullish hedge fund positions. Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. (NASDAQ:ASPS) 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 12.2% in 2020 through June 17th but still beat the market by 14.8 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on ASPS as the stock returned 61.9% in Q2 (through June 17th) and outperformed the market. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.

Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.