Hedge Funds and other institutional investors have just completed filing their 13Fs with the Securities and Exchange Commission, revealing their equity portfolios as of the end of June. At Insider Monkey, we follow nearly 750 active hedge funds and notable investors and by analyzing their 13F filings, we can determine the stocks that they are collectively bullish on. One of their picks is Frontline Ltd (NYSE:FRO), so let’s take a closer look at the sentiment that surrounds it in the current quarter.
Frontline Ltd (NYSE:FRO) has experienced an increase in enthusiasm from smart money in recent months. Our calculations also showed that FRO 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.
To most traders, hedge funds are seen as slow, old financial tools of the past. While there are more than 8000 funds trading today, Our experts look at the top tier of this group, around 750 funds. These investment experts administer the lion’s share of all hedge funds’ total asset base, and by tailing their matchless equity investments, Insider Monkey has uncovered many investment strategies that have historically defeated Mr. Market. Insider Monkey’s flagship short hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 short ETFs by around 20 percentage points annually since its inception in May 2014. Our portfolio of short stocks lost 27.8% since February 2017 (through November 21st) even though the market was up more than 39% during the same period. We just shared a list of 7 short targets in our latest quarterly update .
Crispin Odey of Odey Asset Management Group
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 latest hedge fund action regarding Frontline Ltd (NYSE:FRO).
How are hedge funds trading Frontline Ltd (NYSE:FRO)?
At Q3’s end, a total of 14 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 8% from the second quarter of 2019. On the other hand, there were a total of 6 hedge funds with a bullish position in FRO a year ago. So, let’s find out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
Among these funds, Odey Asset Management Group held the most valuable stake in Frontline Ltd (NYSE:FRO), which was worth $27.8 million at the end of the third quarter. On the second spot was Renaissance Technologies which amassed $25.2 million worth of shares. Marshall Wace, Millennium Management, and Citadel Investment 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 Odey Asset Management Group allocated the biggest weight to Frontline Ltd (NYSE:FRO), around 3.1% of its 13F portfolio. Marshall Wace is also relatively very bullish on the stock, setting aside 0.16 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to FRO.
Now, some big names have jumped into Frontline Ltd (NYSE:FRO) headfirst. PEAK6 Capital Management, managed by Matthew Hulsizer, established the biggest call position in Frontline Ltd (NYSE:FRO). PEAK6 Capital Management had $0.7 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Peter Muller’s PDT Partners also made a $0.7 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new FRO investors: Bruce Kovner’s Caxton Associates and Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management.
Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Frontline Ltd (NYSE:FRO) but similarly valued. These stocks are Prestige Consumer Healthcare Inc. (NYSE:PBH), BMC Stock Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:BMCH), Constellium SE (NYSE:CSTM), and iRobot Corporation (NASDAQ:IRBT). This group of stocks’ market caps are similar to FRO’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| PBH | 17 | 73601 | 2 |
| BMCH | 27 | 287010 | 2 |
| CSTM | 43 | 412365 | 6 |
| IRBT | 11 | 52517 | 2 |
| Average | 24.5 | 206373 | 3 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 24.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $206 million. That figure was $100 million in FRO’s case. Constellium SE (NYSE:CSTM) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand iRobot Corporation (NASDAQ:IRBT) is the least popular one with only 11 bullish hedge fund positions. Frontline Ltd (NYSE:FRO) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. 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 FRO as the stock returned 23.4% during the first two months of Q4 and outperformed the market by an even larger margin.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
