Here is What Hedge Funds Think About Dicks Sporting Goods Inc (DKS)

We at Insider Monkey have gone over 866 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 March 31st. In this article, we look at what those funds think of Dicks Sporting Goods Inc (NYSE:DKS) based on that data.

Dicks Sporting Goods Inc (NYSE:DKS) investors should pay attention to a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money lately. Dicks Sporting Goods Inc (NYSE:DKS) was in 31 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of March. The all time high for this statistic is 44. There were 42 hedge funds in our database with DKS holdings at the end of December. Our calculations also showed that DKS isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings).

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Gavin Saitowitz of Prelude Capital

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. Keeping this in mind we’re going to take a gander at the key hedge fund action regarding Dicks Sporting Goods Inc (NYSE:DKS).

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

At first quarter’s end, a total of 31 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of -26% from the fourth quarter of 2020. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards DKS over the last 23 quarters. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).

More specifically, Atreides Management was the largest shareholder of Dicks Sporting Goods Inc (NYSE:DKS), with a stake worth $190.6 million reported as of the end of March. Trailing Atreides Management was Samlyn Capital, which amassed a stake valued at $150.4 million. Two Sigma Advisors, AQR Capital Management, and Renaissance Technologies 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 Tensile Capital allocated the biggest weight to Dicks Sporting Goods Inc (NYSE:DKS), around 6.29% of its 13F portfolio. Atreides Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 4.28 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to DKS.

Judging by the fact that Dicks Sporting Goods Inc (NYSE:DKS) has faced declining sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s safe to say that there was a specific group of money managers who were dropping their entire stakes heading into Q2. It’s worth mentioning that Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP cut the largest investment of all the hedgies watched by Insider Monkey, comprising about $28.7 million in stock, and James Woodson Davis’s Woodson Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund dropped about $23.6 million worth. These transactions are important to note, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 11 funds heading into Q2.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Dicks Sporting Goods Inc (NYSE:DKS). We will take a look at TG Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:TGTX), APA Corporation (NASDAQ:APA), Pinnacle Financial Partners, Inc. (NASDAQ:PNFP), Change Healthcare Inc. (NASDAQ:CHNG), Stifel Financial Corp. (NYSE:SF), Planet Fitness Inc (NYSE:PLNT), and Texas Roadhouse Inc (NASDAQ:TXRH). This group of stocks’ market valuations are closest to DKS’s market valuation.

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As you can see these stocks had an average of 30.9 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $718 million. That figure was $852 million in DKS’s case. Change Healthcare Inc. (NASDAQ:CHNG) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Pinnacle Financial Partners, Inc. (NASDAQ:PNFP) is the least popular one with only 14 bullish hedge fund positions. Dicks Sporting Goods Inc (NYSE:DKS) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for DKS is 35.4. 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. Hedge funds were also right about betting on DKS as the stock returned 32.4% since the end of Q1 (through 7/2) and outperformed the market. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.

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