A whopping number of 13F filings filed with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has been processed by Insider Monkey so that individual investors can look at the overall hedge fund sentiment towards the stocks included in their watchlists. These freshly-submitted public filings disclose money managers’ equity positions as of the end of the three-month period that ended September 30, so let’s proceed with the discussion of the hedge fund sentiment on Aspen Insurance Holdings Limited (NYSE:AHL).
Aspen Insurance Holdings Limited (NYSE:AHL) investors should be aware of a decrease in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds lately. AHL was in 17 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. There were 20 hedge funds in our database with AHL positions at the end of the previous quarter. 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 Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc (NASDAQ:RARE), Urban Edge Properties (NYSE:UE), and PIMCO Dynamic Credit Income Fund (NYSE:PCI) to gather more data points.
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How are hedge funds trading Aspen Insurance Holdings Limited (NYSE:AHL)?
At the end of the third quarter, a total of 17 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a fall of 15% from one quarter earlier. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards AHL over the last 5 quarters. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).
According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies holds the most valuable position in Aspen Insurance Holdings Limited (NYSE:AHL). Renaissance Technologies has a $51.9 million position in the stock. On Renaissance Technologies’ heels is AQR Capital Management, led by Cliff Asness, which holds a $51.3 million position. Other peers that hold long positions consist of Richard S. Pzena’s Pzena Investment Management, Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw. We should note that none of these hedge funds are among our list of the 100 best performing hedge funds which is based on the performance of their 13F long positions in non-microcap stocks.
Now that we’ve mentioned the most bullish investors, let’s also take a look at some funds that cut their entire stakes in the stock during the third quarter. Interestingly, Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management cut the biggest position of the “upper crust” of funds followed by Insider Monkey, comprising an estimated $0.7 million in stock. Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s fund, Marshall Wace LLP, also dropped its stock, about $0.3 million worth.
Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Aspen Insurance Holdings Limited (NYSE:AHL). These stocks are Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc (NASDAQ:RARE), Urban Edge Properties (NYSE:UE), PIMCO Dynamic Credit Income Fund (NYSE:PCI), and Metals USA Holdings Corp (NYSE:MUSA). All of these stocks’ market caps match AHL’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| RARE | 18 | 162983 | -1 |
| UE | 8 | 15485 | 3 |
| PCI | 3 | 7951 | -2 |
| MUSA | 19 | 169461 | -4 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 12 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $89 million. That figure was $217 million in AHL’s case. Metals USA Holdings Corp (NYSE:MUSA) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand PIMCO Dynamic Credit Income Fund (NYSE:PCI) is the least popular one with only 3 bullish hedge fund positions. Aspen Insurance Holdings Limited (NYSE:AHL) 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. In this regard MUSA might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.
Disclosure: None
