Here is What Hedge Funds Think About Textron Inc. (TXT)

The worries about the economic slowdown in China and the ongoing uncertainty about the path of interest-rate increases triggered several waves of equity sell-offs during the third quarter. Of course, most hedge funds and other asset managers had to stomach substantial losses during the bloody three-month period, which might have caused some to consider fleeing the U.S. equity markets. Interestingly, smaller-cap stocks registered higher losses than large-capitalization stocks during the September quarter, suggesting that institutional investors heavily discarded seemingly riskier equities amid high uncertainty and turmoil. In fact, the Russell 2000 Index lost 11.9% in the third quarter, while the Standard and Poor’s 500 benchmark declined a mere 6.4%. This article will lay out and discuss the hedge fund and institutional investor sentiment towards Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT).

Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT) was in 26 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2015. Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT) shareholders have witnessed a decrease in support from the world’s most elite money managers of late. There were 33 hedge funds in our database with Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT) positions at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of this article, we will also compare Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT) to other stocks, including MGM Resorts International (NYSE:MGM), Goldcorp Inc. (USA) (NYSE:GG), and Grifols SA, Barcelona (NASDAQ:GRFS) to get a better sense of its popularity.

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Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a peek at the fresh action regarding Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT).

Hedge fund activity in Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT)

At the end of the third quarter, a total of 26 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a decrease of 21% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings considerably (or already accumulated large positions).

According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global has the number one position in Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT), worth close to $139.8 million, comprising 0.5% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, which holds a $130.4 million position; 0.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining peers with similar optimism contain Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors, Anand Parekh’s Alyeska Investment Group, and Cliff Asness’ AQR Capital Management.

Judging by the fact that Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT) has witnessed a declination in interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s easy to see that there were a few money managers who sold off their entire stakes by the end of the third quarter. Intriguingly, Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management dropped the biggest position of all the hedgies monitored by Insider Monkey, comprising close to $69.5 million in stock, and Lawrence Sapanski’s Scoria Capital was right behind this move, as the fund dropped about $20.1 million worth of shares. These moves are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 7 funds by the end of the third quarter.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT). We will take a look at MGM Resorts International (NYSE:MGM), Goldcorp Inc. (USA) (NYSE:GG), Grifols SA, Barcelona (NASDAQ:GRFS), and Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX). This group of stocks’ market valuations is similar to Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT)’s market valuation.

As you can see, these stocks had an average of 34 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1.12 billion. That figure was $688 million in Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT)’s case. MGM Resorts International (NYSE:MGM) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand, Grifols SA, Barcelona (NASDAQ:GRFS) is the least popular one with only 14 bullish hedge fund positions. Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT) 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, MGM Resorts International (NYSE:MGM) might be a better candidate to consider a long position.