Hedge Funds Aren’t Crazy About DISH Network Corp. (DISH) Anymore

Although the masses and most of the financial media blame hedge funds for their exorbitant fee structure and disappointing performance, these investors have proved to have great stock picking abilities over the years (that’s why their assets under management continue to swell). We believe that hedge fund sentiment should serve as a crucial tool of an individual investor’s stock selection process, as it may offer great insights of how the brightest minds of the finance industry feel about specific stocks. After all, these people have access to smartest analysts and expensive data/information sources that individual investors can’t match. So should one consider investing in DISH Network Corp. (NASDAQ:DISH)? The smart money sentiment can provide an answer to this question.

DISH Network Corp. (NASDAQ:DISH) investors should be aware of a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money of late. DISH Network Corp. (NASDAQ:DISH) was in 53 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2015. There were 68 hedge funds in our database with DISH Network Corp. (NASDAQ:DISH) positions at the end of the previous quarter. The level and the change in hedge fund popularity aren’t the only variables you need to analyze to decipher hedge funds’ perspectives. A stock may witness a boost in popularity, but it may still be less popular than similarly priced stocks. That’s why at the end of this article, we will examine companies such as Banco Bradesco SA (ADR) (NYSE:BBD), Imperial Oil Limited (USA) (NYSEMKT:IMO), and Humana Inc (NYSE:HUM) to gather more data points.

In the eyes of most investors, hedge funds are seen as unimportant, outdated investment tools of years past. While there are over 8000 funds in operation at the moment, We hone in on the upper echelon of this club, about 700 funds. These hedge fund managers watch over the majority of the smart money’s total capital, and by observing their finest picks, Insider Monkey has spotted several investment strategies that have historically defeated Mr. Market. Insider Monkey’s small-cap hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 index by 12 percentage points annually for a decade in their back tests.

With all of this in mind, let’s take a glance at the recent action surrounding DISH Network Corp. (NASDAQ:DISH).

What have hedge funds been doing with DISH Network Corp. (NASDAQ:DISH)?

At the end of the third quarter, a total of 53 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a drop of 22% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).

When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Boykin Curry’s Eagle Capital Management has the most valuable position in DISH Network Corp. (NASDAQ:DISH), worth close to $785.9 million, corresponding to 3.4% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Millennium Management, led by Israel Englander, holding a $277.9 million position; the fund has 0.5% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedge funds and institutional investors with similar optimism consist of Jason Karp’s Tourbillon Capital Partners, Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors, and Murray Stahl’s Horizon Asset Management.

Seeing as DISH Network Corp. (NASDAQ:DISH) has witnessed a declining sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, logic holds that there exists a select few hedge funds that decided to sell off their positions entirely last quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Millennium Management Subsidiary’s Blue Arrow Capital Management dropped the largest stake of the “upper crust” of funds watched by Insider Monkey, totaling about $78.2 million in stock. Josh Resnick’s fund, Jericho Capital Asset Management, also dropped its stock, about $42.8 million worth of shares. These moves are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 15 funds last quarter.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as DISH Network Corp. (NASDAQ:DISH) but similarly valued. These stocks are Banco Bradesco SA (ADR) (NYSE:BBD), Imperial Oil Limited (USA) (NYSEMKT:IMO), Humana Inc (NYSE:HUM), and CSX Corporation (NYSE:CSX). All of these stocks’ market caps resemble DISH Network Corp. (NASDAQ:DISH)’s market cap.

As you can see, these stocks had an average of 31 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1.48 billion. That figure was $3.09 billion in DISH Network Corp. (NASDAQ:DISH)’s case. Humana Inc (NYSE:HUM) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand, Imperial Oil Limited (USA) (NYSEMKT:IMO) is the least popular one with only 9 bullish hedge fund positions. DISH Network Corp. (NASDAQ:DISH) is not the most popular stock in this group, but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal, but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard, Humana Inc (NYSE:HUM might be a better candidate to consider a long position.