With the first-quarter round of 13F filings behind us it is time to take a look at the stocks in which some of the best money managers in the world preferred to invest or sell heading into the second quarter. One of these stocks was Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc (NYSE:APAM).
Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc (NYSE:APAM) shareholders have witnessed a decrease in hedge fund interest lately. APAM was in 13 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2019. There were 15 hedge funds in our database with APAM holdings at the end of the previous quarter. Our calculations also showed that APAM isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings and see the video below for Q2 rankings).
Video: Click the image to watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.
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Noam Gottesman of GLG Partners
We leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example Europe is set to become the world’s largest cannabis market, so we check out this European marijuana stock pitch. One of the most bullish analysts in America just put his money where his mouth is. He says, “I’m investing more today than I did back in early 2009.” So we check out his pitch. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. We also rely on the best performing hedge funds‘ buy/sell signals. We’re going to take a look at the key hedge fund action regarding Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc (NYSE:APAM).
How are hedge funds trading Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc (NYSE:APAM)?
At Q3’s end, a total of 13 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of -13% from the previous quarter. On the other hand, there were a total of 13 hedge funds with a bullish position in APAM a year ago. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were adding to their stakes meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).
More specifically, Renaissance Technologies was the largest shareholder of Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc (NYSE:APAM), with a stake worth $91 million reported as of the end of September. Trailing Renaissance Technologies was Fisher Asset Management, which amassed a stake valued at $45.4 million. Citadel Investment Group, Royce & Associates, and GLG Partners 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 Sprott Asset Management allocated the biggest weight to Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc (NYSE:APAM), around 1.51% of its 13F portfolio. Royce & Associates is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 0.14 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to APAM.
Judging by the fact that Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc (NYSE:APAM) has witnessed falling interest from hedge fund managers, it’s safe to say that there were a few fund managers who were dropping their entire stakes last quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management cut the largest stake of the “upper crust” of funds monitored by Insider Monkey, worth close to $1.7 million in stock, and David E. Shaw’s D E Shaw was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $1 million worth. These moves are important to note, as total hedge fund interest fell by 2 funds last quarter.
Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc (NYSE:APAM). We will take a look at Inter Parfums, Inc. (NASDAQ:IPAR), Senior Housing Properties Trust (NASDAQ:SNH), Trustmark Corporation (NASDAQ:TRMK), and Cubic Corporation (NYSE:CUB). This group of stocks’ market caps are closest to APAM’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| IPAR | 13 | 74430 | -4 |
| SNH | 13 | 24349 | 0 |
| TRMK | 14 | 24310 | 0 |
| CUB | 16 | 34965 | -3 |
| Average | 14 | 39514 | -1.75 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 14 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $40 million. That figure was $206 million in APAM’s case. Cubic Corporation (NYSE:CUB) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Inter Parfums, Inc. (NASDAQ:IPAR) is the least popular one with only 13 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc (NYSE:APAM) is even less popular than IPAR. Our calculations showed that top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 37.4% in 2019 through the end of November and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 9.9 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on APAM, though not to the same extent, as the stock returned 7.5% during the fourth quarter (through 11/30) and outperformed the market as well.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
