Here is What Hedge Funds Think About Campbell Soup Company (CPB)

Out of thousands of stocks that are currently traded on the market, it is difficult to identify those that will really generate strong returns. Hedge funds and institutional investors spend millions of dollars on analysts with MBAs and PhDs, who are industry experts and well connected to other industry and media insiders on top of that. Individual investors can piggyback the hedge funds employing these talents and can benefit from their vast resources and knowledge in that way. We analyze quarterly 13F filings of nearly 900 hedge funds and, by looking at the smart money sentiment that surrounds a stock, we can determine whether it has the potential to beat the market over the long-term. Therefore, let’s take a closer look at what smart money thinks about Campbell Soup Company (NYSE:CPB).

Campbell Soup Company (NYSE:CPB) investors should be aware of an increase in support from the world’s most elite money managers lately. Campbell Soup Company (NYSE:CPB) was in 29 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. The all time high for this statistic is 40. There were 27 hedge funds in our database with CPB holdings at the end of June. Our calculations also showed that CPB isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings).

At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, lithium prices have more than doubled over the past year, so 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. Keeping this in mind we’re going to take a peek at the recent hedge fund action surrounding Campbell Soup Company (NYSE:CPB).

Ian Wace of Marshall Wace

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

Heading into the fourth quarter of 2021, a total of 29 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 7% from one quarter earlier. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards CPB over the last 25 quarters. So, let’s find out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

More specifically, Renaissance Technologies was the largest shareholder of Campbell Soup Company (NYSE:CPB), with a stake worth $125 million reported as of the end of September. Trailing Renaissance Technologies was Citadel Investment Group, which amassed a stake valued at $72.2 million. Millennium Management, Marshall Wace LLP, and Holocene Advisors were also very fond of the stock, becoming one of the largest hedge fund holders of the company. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Factorial Partners allocated the biggest weight to Campbell Soup Company (NYSE:CPB), around 1.59% of its 13F portfolio. GRT Capital Partners is also relatively very bullish on the stock, dishing out 0.68 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to CPB.

Now, key hedge funds have jumped into Campbell Soup Company (NYSE:CPB) headfirst. Holocene Advisors, managed by Brandon Haley, assembled the biggest position in Campbell Soup Company (NYSE:CPB). Holocene Advisors had $39.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management also made a $8.9 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new CPB investors: D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors, and Qing Li’s Sciencast Management.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Campbell Soup Company (NYSE:CPB) but similarly valued. We will take a look at LPL Financial Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LPLA), Jones Lang LaSalle Inc (NYSE:JLL), Iron Mountain Incorporated (NYSE:IRM), Enel Americas S.A. (NYSE:ENIA), Tenaris S.A. (NYSE:TS), Opendoor Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:OPEN), and Fortune Brands Home & Security Inc (NYSE:FBHS). This group of stocks’ market valuations resemble CPB’s market valuation.

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As you can see these stocks had an average of 24.1 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $881 million. That figure was $443 million in CPB’s case. LPL Financial Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LPLA) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Enel Americas S.A. (NYSE:ENIA) is the least popular one with only 9 bullish hedge fund positions. Campbell Soup Company (NYSE:CPB) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for CPB is 64.5. 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. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. 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 28.6% in 2021 through November 30th and beat the market again by 5.6 percentage points. Unfortunately CPB wasn’t nearly as popular as these 5 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on CPB were disappointed as the stock returned -2.7% since the end of September (through 11/30) 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 many of these stocks already outperformed the market since 2019.

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