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. We at Insider Monkey have plowed through 821 13F filings that hedge funds and well-known value investors are required to file by the SEC. The 13F filings show the funds’ and investors’ portfolio positions as of March 31st, a week after the market trough. In this article we look at what those investors think of The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX).
The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX) was in 41 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the first quarter of 2020. CLX shareholders have witnessed an increase in enthusiasm from smart money of late. There were 27 hedge funds in our database with CLX holdings at the end of the previous quarter. Our calculations also showed that CLX 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.
To most traders, hedge funds are assumed to be unimportant, old investment vehicles of the past. While there are more than 8000 funds trading today, Our researchers hone in on the aristocrats of this group, approximately 850 funds. These investment experts preside over bulk of all hedge funds’ total capital, and by watching their best equity investments, Insider Monkey has spotted many investment strategies that have historically exceeded the market. Insider Monkey’s flagship short hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 short ETFs by around 20 percentage points per annum 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
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. Keeping this in mind we’re going to take a look at the latest hedge fund action surrounding The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX).
Hedge fund activity in The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX)
Heading into the second quarter of 2020, a total of 41 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 52% from the previous quarter. By comparison, 29 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in CLX 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 significantly (or already accumulated large positions).
According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Southport Management, managed by Jonathan Dawson, holds the largest position in The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX). Southport Management has a $1.2128 billion position in the stock, comprising 13.5% of its 13F portfolio. On Southport Management’s heels is Andy Brown of Cedar Rock Capital, with a $458.9 million position; the fund has 12.3% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other members of the smart money that hold long positions include Renaissance Technologies, Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Southport Management allocated the biggest weight to The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX), around 13.52% of its 13F portfolio. Cedar Rock Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, designating 12.28 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to CLX.
As aggregate interest increased, specific money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Southport Management, managed by Jonathan Dawson, initiated the most outsized position in The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX). Southport Management had $1.2128 billion invested in the company at the end of the quarter. John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors also made a $13.1 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management, Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management, and Lee Ainslie’s Maverick Capital.
Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX) but similarly valued. We will take a look at American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE:AWK), CoStar Group Inc (NASDAQ:CSGP), V.F. Corporation (NYSE:VFC), and ResMed Inc. (NYSE:RMD). This group of stocks’ market values resemble CLX’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| AWK | 30 | 633418 | 1 |
| CSGP | 40 | 1689677 | -4 |
| VFC | 19 | 171262 | -10 |
| RMD | 33 | 167543 | 12 |
| Average | 30.5 | 665475 | -0.25 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 30.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $665 million. That figure was $2344 million in CLX’s case. CoStar Group Inc (NASDAQ:CSGP) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand V.F. Corporation (NYSE:VFC) is the least popular one with only 19 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX) 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 8.3% in 2020 through the end of May but still managed to beat the market by 13.2 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on CLX, though not to the same extent, as the stock returned 19.7% in Q2 (through the end of May) and outperformed the market as well.
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
