The 700+ hedge funds and money managers tracked by Insider Monkey have already compiled and submitted their 13F filings for the third quarter, which unveil their equity positions as of September 30. We went through these filings, fixed typos and other more significant errors and identified the changes in hedge fund positions. Our extensive review of these public filings is finally over, so this article is set to reveal the smart money sentiment towards Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX).
Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) investors should pay attention to an increase in enthusiasm from smart money in recent months. CVX was in 53 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2016. There were 47 hedge funds in our database with CVX holdings 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 Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA), Novartis AG (ADR) (NYSE:NVS), and The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) to gather more data points.
Follow Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX)
Follow Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX)
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, we’re going to check out the fresh action regarding Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX).
What does the smart money think about Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX)?
At Q3’s end, a total of 53 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a 13% increase from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes significantly (or already accumulated large positions).
Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management has the biggest position in Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX), worth close to $392.1 million, amounting to 1.1% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Ken Fisher of Fisher Asset Management, with a $371.4 million position. Other members of the smart money that hold long positions comprise Daniel S. Och’s OZ Management and Cliff Asness’ AQR Capital Management.
Now, specific money managers have been driving this bullishness. OZ Management, managed by Daniel S. Och, created the most valuable call position in Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX). OZ Management had $307.2 million invested in the position at the end of the quarter. Eric Mindich’s Eton Park Capital also made a $205.8 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management, and Kenneth Tropin’s Graham Capital Management.
Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX). We will take a look at Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA), Novartis AG (ADR) (NYSE:NVS), The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO), and Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ:ORCL). This group of stocks’ market values resemble CVX’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| BABA | 104 | 8267577 | 35 |
| NVS | 26 | 914753 | 4 |
| KO | 53 | 19569276 | -2 |
| ORCL | 56 | 5840268 | 3 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 59.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $8.65 billion. That figure was $2.24 billion in CVX’s case. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Novartis AG (ADR) (NYSE:NVS) is the least popular one with only 26 bullish hedge fund positions. Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average and it has far less money invested in it than 2 of the other stocks on this list. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard BABA might be a better candidate to consider a long position.
Disclosure: None
