Hedge Funds Coming Back To Signet Jewelers Limited (SIG)

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. What do these smart investors think about Signet Jewelers Limited (NYSE:SIG)?

Signet Jewelers Limited (NYSE:SIG) investors should be aware of an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds lately. SIG was in 25 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of March. There were 22 hedge funds in our database with SIG holdings at the end of the previous quarter. Our calculations also showed that SIG 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.

According to most stock holders, hedge funds are seen as worthless, old financial vehicles of the past. While there are over 8000 funds in operation today, We hone in on the upper echelon of this club, approximately 850 funds. It is estimated that this group of investors handle the majority of all hedge funds’ total asset base, and by paying attention to their inimitable equity investments, Insider Monkey has deciphered several investment strategies that have historically outrun the market. Insider Monkey’s flagship short hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 short ETFs by around 20 percentage points a 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 .

Lee Ainslie of Maverick Capital

We leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, we believe electric vehicles and energy storage are set to become giant markets, and we want to take advantage of the declining lithium prices amid the COVID-19 pandemic. So we are checking out investment opportunities like these. We interview hedge fund managers and ask them about their best ideas. If you want to find out the best healthcare stock to buy right now, you can watch our latest hedge fund manager interview here. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. Our best call in 2020 was shorting the market when the S&P 500 was trading at 3150 after realizing the coronavirus pandemic’s significance before most investors. Now let’s analyze the new hedge fund action regarding Signet Jewelers Limited (NYSE:SIG).

How are hedge funds trading Signet Jewelers Limited (NYSE:SIG)?

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 25 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 14% from the previous quarter. On the other hand, there were a total of 17 hedge funds with a bullish position in SIG a year ago. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were adding to their holdings meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).

More specifically, Select Equity Group was the largest shareholder of Signet Jewelers Limited (NYSE:SIG), with a stake worth $22 million reported as of the end of September. Trailing Select Equity Group was Renaissance Technologies, which amassed a stake valued at $11.3 million. D E Shaw, Contrarius Investment Management, and Select Equity Group 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 Contrarius Investment Management allocated the biggest weight to Signet Jewelers Limited (NYSE:SIG), around 0.87% of its 13F portfolio. North Fourth Asset Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, designating 0.29 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to SIG.

As one would reasonably expect, key hedge funds have jumped into Signet Jewelers Limited (NYSE:SIG) headfirst. Renaissance Technologies, assembled the most outsized position in Signet Jewelers Limited (NYSE:SIG). Renaissance Technologies had $11.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Lee Ainslie’s Maverick Capital also initiated a $4.1 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new SIG investors: Seth Wunder’s Black-and-White Capital, Anthony Joseph Vaccarino’s North Fourth Asset Management, and Ryan Tolkin (CIO)’s Schonfeld Strategic Advisors.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Signet Jewelers Limited (NYSE:SIG). We will take a look at Establishment Labs Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:ESTA), Capital City Bank Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCBG), DMC Global Inc. (NASDAQ:BOOM), and Peapack-Gladstone Financial Corp (NASDAQ:PGC). This group of stocks’ market values resemble SIG’s market value.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 11.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $33 million. That figure was $72 million in SIG’s case. Peapack-Gladstone Financial Corp (NASDAQ:PGC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Capital City Bank Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCBG) is the least popular one with only 3 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Signet Jewelers Limited (NYSE:SIG) is more popular among hedge funds. 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 returned 13.9% in 2020 through June 10th but still managed to beat the market by 14.2 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on SIG as the stock returned 90.4% so far in Q2 (through June 10th) and outperformed the market by an even larger margin. Hedge funds were clearly right about piling into this stock relative to other stocks with similar market capitalizations.

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