Hedge Funds Have Never Been This Bullish On Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. (VSH)

In this article you are going to find out whether hedge funds think Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. (NYSE:VSH) is a good investment right now. We like to check what the smart money thinks first before doing extensive research on a given stock. Although there have been several high profile failed hedge fund picks, the consensus picks among hedge fund investors have historically outperformed the market after adjusting for known risk attributes. It’s not surprising given that hedge funds have access to better information and more resources to predict the winners in the stock market.

Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. (NYSE:VSH) was in 32 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of March. The all time high for this statistic was previously 31. This means the bullish number of hedge fund positions in this stock currently sits at its all time high. VSH has experienced an increase in enthusiasm from smart money of late. There were 31 hedge funds in our database with VSH positions at the end of the fourth quarter. Our calculations also showed that VSH isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings).

Hedge funds’ reputation as shrewd investors has been tarnished in the last decade as their hedged returns couldn’t keep up with the unhedged returns of the market indices. Our research has shown that hedge funds’ small-cap stock picks managed to beat the market by double digits annually between 1999 and 2016, but the margin of outperformance has been declining in recent years. Nevertheless, we were still able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by 115 percentage points since March 2017 (see the details here). We were also able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that underperformed the market by 10 percentage points annually between 2006 and 2017. Interestingly the margin of underperformance of these stocks has been increasing in recent years. Investors who are long the market and short these stocks would have returned more than 27% annually between 2015 and 2017. We have been tracking and sharing the list of these stocks since February 2017 in our quarterly newsletter.

Ken Fisher of Fisher Asset Management

At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, lithium mining is one of the fastest growing industries right now, so we are checking out stock pitches like this emerging lithium stock. We go through lists like the 10 best EV stocks to pick the next Tesla that will deliver a 10x return. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. You can subscribe to our free daily newsletter on our homepage. Now let’s take a gander at the new hedge fund action regarding Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. (NYSE:VSH).

Do Hedge Funds Think VSH Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?

Heading into the second quarter of 2021, a total of 32 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 3% from one quarter earlier. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in VSH over the last 23 quarters. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes considerably (or already accumulated large positions).

When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Fisher Asset Management, managed by Ken Fisher, holds the largest position in Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. (NYSE:VSH). Fisher Asset Management has a $98.7 million position in the stock, comprising 0.1% of its 13F portfolio. On Fisher Asset Management’s heels is Steve Cohen of Point72 Asset Management, with a $93.4 million position; the fund has 0.4% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other peers with similar optimism consist of Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates, Michael Rockefeller and KarláKroeker’s Woodline Partners and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Mountaineer Partners Management allocated the biggest weight to Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. (NYSE:VSH), around 7.45% of its 13F portfolio. Divisar Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 2.12 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to VSH.

As one would reasonably expect, key hedge funds were breaking ground themselves. Divisar Capital, managed by Steven Baughman, initiated the largest position in Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. (NYSE:VSH). Divisar Capital had $6.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Richard SchimeláandáLawrence Sapanski’s Cinctive Capital Management also made a $5 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new VSH investors: Suraj Parkash Chopra’s Force Hill Capital Management, Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management, and Greg Eisner’s Engineers Gate Manager.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. (NYSE:VSH). These stocks are EPR Properties (NYSE:EPR), Sanderson Farms, Inc. (NASDAQ:SAFM), AMN Healthcare Services Inc (NYSE:AMN), TechnipFMC plc (NYSE:FTI), Rush Street Interactive, Inc. (NYSE:RSI), LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:RAMP), and First Majestic Silver Corp (NYSE:AG). This group of stocks’ market valuations resemble VSH’s market valuation.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 19.3 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $212 million. That figure was $565 million in VSH’s case. LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:RAMP) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand EPR Properties (NYSE:EPR) is the least popular one with only 15 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. (NYSE:VSH) is more popular among hedge funds. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for VSH is 86. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. Our calculations showed that top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 95.8% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 40 percentage points. These stocks gained 22.8% in 2021 through July 2nd and still beat the market by 6 percentage points. Unfortunately VSH wasn’t nearly as popular as these 5 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on VSH were disappointed as the stock returned -6.8% since the end of the first quarter (through 7/2) and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds as most of these stocks already outperformed the market since 2019.

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