Here is What Hedge Funds Think About Restaurant Brands International Inc (QSR)

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 S&P 500 stocks among hedge funds at the end of September 2014 yielded an average return of 9.5% during the last 12 months ending in October 30. Sixty three percent of these 30 stocks outperformed the market. Although the elite funds occasionally have their duds, such as Micron and Anadarko Petroleum, which fell 50% and 26%, respectively, during the same time period, 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 Restaurant Brands International Inc (NYSE:QSR).

Is Restaurant Brands International Inc (NYSE:QSR) a worthy investment now? Prominent investors are reducing their bets on the stock. The number of long hedge fund bets was trimmed by 8 lately. QSR was in 29 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2015. There were 37 hedge funds in our database with QSR positions at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of this article we will also compare QSR to other stocks including Sunoco Logistics Partners L.P. (NYSE:SXL), The Cooper Companies, Inc. (NYSE:COO), and VimpelCom Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:VIP) to get a better sense of its popularity.

In the financial world there are plenty of tools stock market investors put to use to appraise stocks. A couple of the best tools are hedge fund and insider trading interest. We have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite hedge fund managers can outpace the broader indices by a solid margin (see the details here).

Now, we’re going to take a look at the key action regarding Restaurant Brands International Inc (NYSE:QSR).

What have hedge funds been doing with Restaurant Brands International Inc (NYSE:QSR)?

Heading into Q4, a total of 29 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of -22% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes substantially (or already accumulated large positions).

According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, billionaire Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square has the number one position in Restaurant Brands International Inc (NYSE:QSR), worth close to $1.3651 billion, comprising 9.8% of its total 13F portfolio. The second most bullish fund manager is Berkshire Hathaway, managed by Warren Buffett, which holds a $303.1 million position; the fund has 0.2% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedge funds and institutional investors that are bullish comprise Kenneth Mario Garschina’s Mason Capital Management, Jonathan Auerbach’s Hound Partners and David Stemerman’s Conatus Capital Management.

Seeing as Restaurant Brands International Inc (NYSE:QSR) has witnessed a decline in interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, we can see that there was a specific group of fund managers that slashed their entire stakes in the third quarter. Interestingly, Leon Shaulov’s Maplelane Capital said goodbye to the biggest position of all the hedgies watched by Insider Monkey, valued at about $9.7 million in stock. J Kevin Kenny Jr’s fund, Emerging Sovereign Group, also dropped its stock, about $9.3 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest fell by 8 funds in the third quarter.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Restaurant Brands International Inc (NYSE:QSR). We will take a look at Sunoco Logistics Partners L.P. (NYSE:SXL), The Cooper Companies, Inc. (NYSE:COO), VimpelCom Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:VIP), and Mednax Inc. (NYSE:MD). All of these stocks’ market caps match QSR’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 19 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $214 million. The Cooper Companies, Inc. (NYSE:COO) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Sunoco Logistics Partners L.P. (NYSE:SXL) is the least popular one with only 9 bullish hedge fund positions. Restaurant Brands International Inc (NYSE:QSR) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. However, hedge funds have amassed $2.45 billion worth of QSR’s stock at the end of September. This suggests that the stock may be a profitable investment, so a further analysis might be a good idea.