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 General Motors Company (NYSE:GM)?
General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) was in 53 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of March. GM has seen a decrease in hedge fund sentiment recently. There were 75 hedge funds in our database with GM holdings at the end of the previous quarter. Our calculations also showed that GM 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 21st century investor’s toolkit there are dozens of signals market participants put to use to evaluate stocks. A duo of the best signals are hedge fund and insider trading moves. Our experts have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite investment managers can trounce the S&P 500 by a solid margin (see the details here).
Boykin Curry of Eagle Capital
At Insider Monkey we leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, we are still not out of the woods in terms of the coronavirus pandemic. So, we checked out this analyst’s “corona catalyst plays“. We interview hedge fund managers and ask them about their best ideas. You can watch our latest hedge fund manager interview here and find out the name of the large-cap healthcare stock that Sio Capital’s Michael Castor expects to double. 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 S&P 500 was trading at 3150 after realizing the coronavirus pandemic’s significance before most investors. Keeping this in mind we’re going to take a look at the key hedge fund action encompassing General Motors Company (NYSE:GM).
How have hedgies been trading General Motors Company (NYSE:GM)?
At the end of the first quarter, a total of 53 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of -29% from one quarter earlier. By comparison, 53 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in GM a year ago. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were adding to their stakes significantly (or already accumulated large positions).
More specifically, Berkshire Hathaway was the largest shareholder of General Motors Company (NYSE:GM), with a stake worth $1551.9 million reported as of the end of September. Trailing Berkshire Hathaway was Eagle Capital Management, which amassed a stake valued at $408.6 million. Greenhaven Associates, Citadel Investment Group, and Diamond Hill Capital 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 Greenhaven Associates allocated the biggest weight to General Motors Company (NYSE:GM), around 7.81% of its 13F portfolio. Sandbar Asset Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, designating 6.01 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to GM.
Due to the fact that General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) has experienced bearish sentiment from the smart money, it’s easy to see that there exists a select few fund managers that decided to sell off their entire stakes in the third quarter. Interestingly, David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital sold off the biggest position of the “upper crust” of funds watched by Insider Monkey, valued at about $225.3 million in stock, and Doug Silverman and Alexander Klabin’s Senator Investment Group was right behind this move, as the fund said goodbye to about $91.5 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 22 funds in the third quarter.
Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) but similarly valued. These stocks are Workday Inc (NASDAQ:WDAY), Canadian Pacific Railway Limited (NYSE:CP), The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (NYSE:BK), and Mizuho Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:MFG). This group of stocks’ market caps are similar to GM’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| WDAY | 58 | 2259501 | 3 |
| CP | 32 | 1568644 | 3 |
| BK | 52 | 4401625 | -6 |
| MFG | 6 | 23691 | 1 |
| Average | 37 | 2063365 | 0.25 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 37 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $2063 million. That figure was $3020 million in GM’s case. Workday Inc (NASDAQ:WDAY) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Mizuho Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:MFG) is the least popular one with only 6 bullish hedge fund positions. General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) 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 7.9% in 2020 through May 22nd but still beat the market by 15.6 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on GM as the stock returned 25% in Q2 (through May 22nd) and outperformed the market. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
