With the third-quarter round of 13F filings behind us it is time to take a look at the stocks in which some of the best money managers in the world preferred to invest or sell heading into the fourth quarter. One of these stocks was Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ:FISV).
Is Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ:FISV) ready to rally soon? Hedge funds are in a bullish mood. The number of bullish hedge fund bets moved up by 5 in recent months. Our calculations also showed that FISV isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.
To most market participants, hedge funds are seen as underperforming, outdated financial vehicles of the past. While there are over 8,000 funds in operation at the moment, We hone in on the aristocrats of this club, around 700 funds. These investment experts oversee bulk of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by tracking their matchless picks, Insider Monkey has unearthed numerous investment strategies that have historically outrun the broader indices. Insider Monkey’s flagship hedge fund strategy outpaced the S&P 500 index by 6 percentage points per year since its inception in May 2014 through early November 2018. We were able to generate large returns even by identifying short candidates. Our portfolio of short stocks lost 24% since February 2017 (through December 3rd) even though the market was up nearly 23% during the same period. We just shared a list of 11 short targets in our latest quarterly update.
Let’s analyze the key hedge fund action encompassing Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ:FISV).
How are hedge funds trading Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ:FISV)?
Heading into the fourth quarter of 2018, a total of 31 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 19% from one quarter earlier. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards FISV over the last 13 quarters. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes considerably (or already accumulated large positions).
The largest stake in Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ:FISV) was held by Senator Investment Group, which reported holding $148.3 million worth of stock at the end of September. It was followed by Kensico Capital with a $129.1 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included Adage Capital Management, AQR Capital Management, and Two Sigma Advisors.
As aggregate interest increased, specific money managers have been driving this bullishness. Senator Investment Group, managed by Doug Silverman and Alexander Klabin, created the largest position in Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ:FISV). Senator Investment Group had $148.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management also made a $5.7 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new FISV investors: Jeffrey Talpins’s Element Capital Management, Bruce Kovner’s Caxton Associates LP, and Sander Gerber’s Hudson Bay Capital Management.
Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ:FISV) but similarly valued. These stocks are Southern Copper Corporation (NYSE:SCCO), The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB), eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY), and Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE:SPOT). This group of stocks’ market values are similar to FISV’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| SCCO | 17 | 326556 | -1 |
| WMB | 43 | 1838341 | 3 |
| EBAY | 44 | 2276060 | -1 |
| SPOT | 67 | 5370943 | 14 |
| Average | 42.75 | 2452975 | 3.75 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 42.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $2.45 billion. That figure was $594 million in FISV’s case. Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE:SPOT) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Southern Copper Corporation (NYSE:SCCO) is the least popular one with only 17 bullish hedge fund positions. Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ:FISV) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard SPOT might be a better candidate to consider a long position.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
