Before we spend many hours researching a company, we’d like to analyze what hedge funds and billionaire investors think of the stock first. We would like to do so because the elite investors’ consensus returns have been exceptional. The top 30 mid-cap stocks among the best performing hedge funds in our database yielded an average return of 18% during the last 12 months, outperforming the S&P 500 Index funds by double digits. Although the elite funds occasionally have their duds, such as SunEdison and Valeant, the hedge fund picks seem to work on average. In the following paragraphs, we find out what the billionaire investors and hedge funds think of Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS).
Overall, there were 63 funds tracked by Insider Monkey holding shares of Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) at the end of September. The company has experienced a decrease in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds of late, as there had been 68 hedge funds in our database with GS positions 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 Broadcom Ltd (NASDAQ:AVGO), Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (ADR) (NYSE:MTU), and Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (NYSE:EPD) to gather more data points.
Follow Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS)
Follow Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS)
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, let’s take a look at the new action surrounding Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS).
How are hedge funds trading Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)?
As stated earlier, heading into the fourth quarter of 2016, 63 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, down by 7% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).
According to Insider Monkey’s hedge fund database, Berkshire Hathaway, managed by Warren Buffett, holds the most valuable position in Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS). Berkshire Hathaway has a $1.77 billion position in the stock, comprising 1.4% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Greenhaven Associates, managed by Edgar Wachenheim, which holds a $604.1 million position; 11.5% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other professional money managers with similar optimism comprise Boykin Curry’s Eagle Capital Management, Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management and Richard S. Pzena’s Pzena Investment Management.
