Before we spend countless hours researching a company, we like to analyze what insiders, hedge funds and billionaire investors think of the stock first. This is a necessary first step in our investment process because our research has shown that the elite investors’ consensus returns have been exceptional. In the following paragraphs, we find out what the billionaire investors and hedge funds think of SSR Mining Inc. (NASDAQ:SSRM).
SSR Mining Inc. (NASDAQ:SSRM) has seen an increase in enthusiasm from smart money in recent months. Our calculations also showed that SSRM isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.
Today there are plenty of methods market participants employ to grade stocks. A pair of the less utilized methods are hedge fund and insider trading indicators. Our experts have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite money managers can trounce the market by a healthy amount (see the details here).
Let’s take a look at the new hedge fund action surrounding SSR Mining Inc. (NASDAQ:SSRM).
How have hedgies been trading SSR Mining Inc. (NASDAQ:SSRM)?
Heading into the second quarter of 2019, a total of 13 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 8% from the fourth quarter of 2018. By comparison, 8 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in SSRM a year ago. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings substantially (or already accumulated large positions).
The largest stake in SSR Mining Inc. (NASDAQ:SSRM) was held by Renaissance Technologies, which reported holding $74 million worth of stock at the end of March. It was followed by Sun Valley Gold with a $11.3 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included Sprott Asset Management, Two Sigma Advisors, and PEAK6 Capital Management.
As aggregate interest increased, key money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Waratah Capital Advisors, managed by Brad Dunkley and Blair Levinsky, established the most outsized position in SSR Mining Inc. (NASDAQ:SSRM). Waratah Capital Advisors had $2.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Richard Driehaus’s Driehaus Capital also initiated a $1.8 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital, Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, and Kenneth Tropin’s Graham Capital Management.
Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to SSR Mining Inc. (NASDAQ:SSRM). We will take a look at The Children’s Place Inc. (NASDAQ:PLCE), Sirius International Insurance Group, Ltd. (NASDAQ:SG), Rush Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:RUSHA), and Big Lots, Inc. (NYSE:BIG). All of these stocks’ market caps match SSRM’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| PLCE | 22 | 254916 | 3 |
| SG | 1 | 3942 | 0 |
| RUSHA | 19 | 102027 | -2 |
| BIG | 20 | 179321 | 1 |
| Average | 15.5 | 135052 | 0.5 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 15.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $135 million. That figure was $107 million in SSRM’s case. The Children’s Place Inc. (NASDAQ:PLCE) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Sirius International Insurance Group, Ltd. (NASDAQ:SG) is the least popular one with only 1 bullish hedge fund positions. SSR Mining Inc. (NASDAQ:SSRM) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. Our calculations showed that top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 6.2% in Q2 through June 19th and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by nearly 3 percentage points. Unfortunately SSRM wasn’t nearly as popular as these 20 stocks (hedge fund sentiment was quite bearish); SSRM investors were disappointed as the stock returned 2.4% during the same time period and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds as 13 of these stocks already outperformed the market so far in Q2.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
