The latest 13F reporting period has come and gone, and Insider Monkey is again at the forefront when it comes to making use of this gold mine of data. We have processed the filings of the more than 700 world-class investment firms that we track and now have access to the collective wisdom contained in these filings, which are based on their March 31 holdings, data that is available nowhere else. Should you consider Enstar Group Ltd. (NASDAQ:ESGR) for your portfolio? We’ll look to this invaluable collective wisdom for the answer.
Enstar Group Ltd. (NASDAQ:ESGR) was in 11 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the first quarter of 2019. ESGR has experienced an increase in hedge fund interest recently. There were 9 hedge funds in our database with ESGR positions at the end of the previous quarter. Our calculations also showed that esgr isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.
According to most stock holders, hedge funds are seen as slow, outdated financial vehicles of the past. While there are greater than 8000 funds trading at present, We hone in on the aristocrats of this club, around 750 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group of people have their hands on the majority of all hedge funds’ total asset base, and by watching their first-class investments, Insider Monkey has revealed many investment strategies that have historically outperformed the market. Insider Monkey’s flagship hedge fund strategy surpassed the S&P 500 index by around 5 percentage points per year since its inception in May 2014 through June 18th. We were able to generate large returns even by identifying short candidates. Our portfolio of short stocks lost 28.2% since February 2017 (through June 18th) even though the market was up nearly 30% during the same period. We just shared a list of 5 short targets in our latest quarterly update and they are already down an average of 8.2% in a month whereas our long picks outperformed the market by 2.5 percentage points in this volatile 5 week period (our long picks also beat the market by 15 percentage points so far this year).
Let’s review the recent hedge fund action regarding Enstar Group Ltd. (NASDAQ:ESGR).
What does smart money think about Enstar Group Ltd. (NASDAQ:ESGR)?
Heading into the second quarter of 2019, a total of 11 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 22% from the fourth quarter of 2018. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in ESGR over the last 15 quarters. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings significantly (or already accumulated large positions).
The largest stake in Enstar Group Ltd. (NASDAQ:ESGR) was held by Hillhouse Capital Management, which reported holding $209.6 million worth of stock at the end of March. It was followed by Akre Capital Management with a $79.2 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included Diamond Hill Capital, Renaissance Technologies, and AQR Capital Management.
As one would reasonably expect, some big names have jumped into Enstar Group Ltd. (NASDAQ:ESGR) headfirst. ExodusPoint Capital, managed by Michael Gelband, established the most valuable position in Enstar Group Ltd. (NASDAQ:ESGR). ExodusPoint Capital had $0.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP also made a $0.7 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The only other fund with a new position in the stock is David Harding’s Winton Capital Management.
Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Enstar Group Ltd. (NASDAQ:ESGR) but similarly valued. We will take a look at PBF Energy Inc (NYSE:PBF), Evercore Inc. (NYSE:EVR), Schneider National, Inc. (NYSE:SNDR), and GrafTech International Ltd. (NYSE:EAF). This group of stocks’ market values are closest to ESGR’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| PBF | 22 | 342765 | 4 |
| EVR | 25 | 342735 | 1 |
| SNDR | 19 | 121921 | -1 |
| EAF | 24 | 142699 | 1 |
| Average | 22.5 | 237530 | 1.25 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 22.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $238 million. That figure was $349 million in ESGR’s case. Evercore Inc. (NYSE:EVR) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Schneider National, Inc. (NYSE:SNDR) is the least popular one with only 19 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Enstar Group Ltd. (NASDAQ:ESGR) is even less popular than SNDR. Hedge funds dodged a bullet by taking a bearish stance towards ESGR. Our calculations showed that the top 20 most popular hedge fund stocks returned 6.2% in Q2 through June 19th and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by nearly 3 percentage points. Unfortunately ESGR wasn’t nearly as popular as these 20 stocks (hedge fund sentiment was very bearish); ESGR investors were disappointed as the stock returned -0.5% during the same time frame and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds as 13 of these stocks already outperformed the market so far in the second quarter.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
