We at Insider Monkey have gone over 700 13F filings that hedge funds and prominent investors are required to file by the SEC. The 13F filings show the funds’ and investors’ portfolio positions as of September 30. In this article we look at what those investors think of WhiteWave Foods Co (NYSE:WWAV).
Is WhiteWave Foods Co (NYSE:WWAV) a bargain? Money managers are taking an optimistic view. The number of long hedge fund bets inched up by 1 lately. The level and the change in hedge fund popularity aren’t the only variables you need to analyze to decipher hedge funds’ perspectives. A stock may witness a boost in popularity but it may still be less popular than similarly priced stocks. That’s why at the end of this article we will examine companies such as LG Display Co Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:LPL), Ally Financial Inc (NYSE:ALLY), and Bunge Ltd (NYSE:BG) to gather more data points.
Follow Whitewave Foods Co (NYSE:WWAV)
Follow Whitewave Foods Co (NYSE:WWAV)
At Insider Monkey, we’ve developed an investment strategy that has delivered market-beating returns over the past 12 months. Our strategy identifies the 100 best-performing funds of the previous quarter from among the collection of 700+ successful funds that we track in our database, which we accomplish using our returns methodology. We then study the portfolios of those 100 funds using the latest 13F data to uncover the 30 most popular mid-cap stocks (market caps of between $1 billion and $10 billion) among them to hold until the next filing period. This strategy delivered 18% gains over the past 12 months, more than doubling the 8% returns enjoyed by the S&P 500 ETFs.
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With all of this in mind, let’s view the recent action surrounding WhiteWave Foods Co (NYSE:WWAV).
What have hedge funds been doing with WhiteWave Foods Co (NYSE:WWAV)?
Heading into the fourth quarter of 2016, a total of 38 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a mere 3% increase from the previous quarter. Considering WhiteWave agreed to be acquired by Danone during the quarter, the muted uptick in hedge fund ownership is somewhat surprising, as event-driven funds usually pile into such stocks. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings significantly (or already accumulated large positions).
When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, James Dinan’s York Capital Management has the most valuable position in WhiteWave Foods Co (NYSE:WWAV), worth close to $270.9 million, corresponding to 8.6% of its total 13F portfolio. The second most bullish fund manager is Arrowgrass Capital Partners, managed by Nick Niell, which holds a $268 million position; the fund has 3.6% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining peers with similar optimism comprise Matthew Halbower’s Pentwater Capital Management, Eric Mindich’s Eton Park Capital and Robert Emil Zoellner’s Alpine Associates.
As aggregate interest increased, key hedge funds have been driving this bullishness. York Capital Management assembled the most valuable position in WhiteWave Foods Co (NYSE:WWAV), while Arrowgrass Capital Partners also initiated a large position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new WWAV positions are Pentwater Capital Management, Eton Park Capital, and Alpine Associates (all of the largest positions were also newly-opened positions).
Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to WhiteWave Foods Co (NYSE:WWAV). We will take a look at LG Display Co Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:LPL), Ally Financial Inc (NYSE:ALLY), Bunge Ltd (NYSE:BG), and Mobile TeleSystems OJSC (ADR) (NYSE:MBT). All of these stocks’ market caps match WWAV’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| LPL | 12 | 46029 | -1 |
| ALLY | 50 | 2271501 | 1 |
| BG | 23 | 782864 | -10 |
| MBT | 17 | 183462 | 0 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 25.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $821 million. That figure was $1.81 billion in WWAV’s case. Ally Financial Inc (NYSE:ALLY) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand LG Display Co Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:LPL) is the least popular one with only 12 bullish hedge fund positions. WhiteWave Foods Co (NYSE:WWAV) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on and which are not in the process of being acquired. In this regard ALLY might be a better candidate to consider a long position in.
Disclosure: None
