Hedge Funds Have Never Been This Bullish On Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (LYV)

At the end of February we announced the arrival of the first US recession since 2009 and we predicted that the market will decline by at least 20% in (Recession is Imminent: We Need A Travel Ban NOW). In these volatile markets we scrutinize hedge fund filings to get a reading on which direction each stock might be going. In this article, we will take a closer look at hedge fund sentiment towards Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:LYV).

Is Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:LYV) worth your attention right now? Money managers are getting more optimistic. The number of bullish hedge fund bets advanced by 2 in recent months. Our calculations also showed that LYV 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). LYV was in 46 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the first quarter of 2020. There were 44 hedge funds in our database with LYV holdings at the end of the previous quarter.

Video: Watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.

In today’s marketplace there are tons of tools market participants employ to evaluate their stock investments. A pair of the less known tools are hedge fund and insider trading activity. Our experts have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best fund managers can trounce the broader indices by a superb margin (see the details here).

Daniel Sundheim of D1 Capital Partners

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 successful trader’s “corona catalyst plays“. 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 we’re going to check out the latest hedge fund action encompassing Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:LYV).

What does smart money think about Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:LYV)?

Heading into the second quarter of 2020, a total of 46 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 5% from the fourth quarter of 2019. On the other hand, there were a total of 39 hedge funds with a bullish position in LYV a year ago. So, let’s review which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Select Equity Group, managed by Robert Joseph Caruso, holds the biggest position in Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:LYV). Select Equity Group has a $379.6 million position in the stock, comprising 2.6% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Charles Akre of Akre Capital Management, with a $249.2 million position; the fund has 2.4% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other professional money managers that hold long positions include Daniel Sundheim’s D1 Capital Partners, Lone Pine Capital and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Axel Capital Management allocated the biggest weight to Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:LYV), around 13.05% of its 13F portfolio. Deep Field Asset Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, setting aside 12.54 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to LYV.

As aggregate interest increased, some big names were breaking ground themselves. Akre Capital Management, managed by Charles Akre, assembled the largest position in Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:LYV). Akre Capital Management had $249.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Daniel Sundheim’s D1 Capital Partners also made a $159.4 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new LYV positions are Lone Pine Capital, Robert Pohly’s Samlyn Capital, and Ricky Sandler’s Eminence Capital.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:LYV). These stocks are Korea Electric Power Corporation (NYSE:KEP), Magna International Inc. (NYSE:MGA), Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation (NYSE:BAH), and Masco Corporation (NYSE:MAS). This group of stocks’ market values resemble LYV’s market value.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 22.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $302 million. That figure was $1627 million in LYV’s case. Masco Corporation (NYSE:MAS) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Korea Electric Power Corporation (NYSE:KEP) is the least popular one with only 7 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:LYV) 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 gained 7.9% in 2020 through May 22nd and still beat the market by 15.6 percentage points. Unfortunately LYV wasn’t nearly as popular as these 10 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on LYV were disappointed as the stock returned 2.3% during the second quarter (through May 22nd) and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 10 most popular stocks among hedge funds as most of these stocks already outperformed the market in 2020.

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