The worries about the election and the ongoing uncertainty about the path of interest-rate increases have been keeping investors on the sidelines. Of course, most hedge funds and other asset managers have been underperforming main stock market indices since the middle of 2015. Interestingly though, smaller-cap stocks registered their best performance relative to the large-capitalization stocks since the end of the June quarter, suggesting that this may be the best time to take a cue from their stock picks. In fact, the Russell 2000 Index gained more than 15% since the beginning of the third quarter, while the Standard and Poor’s 500 benchmark returned less than 6%. This article will lay out and discuss the hedge fund and institutional investor sentiment towards Tribune Media Co (NYSE:TRCO).
Tribune Media Co (NYSE:TRCO) has experienced an increase in support from the world’s most elite money managers recently. At the end of this article we will also compare TRCO to other stocks including Euronet Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:EEFT), LATAM Airlines Group SA (ADR) (NYSE:LFL), and Alere Inc (NYSE:ALR) to get a better sense of its popularity.
Follow Tribune Media Co (NYSE:TRCO)
Follow Tribune Media Co (NYSE:TRCO)
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.
Shutter_M/Shutterstock.com
Keeping this in mind, we’re going to analyze the recent action regarding Tribune Media Co (NYSE:TRCO).
What have hedge funds been doing with Tribune Media Co (NYSE:TRCO)?
Heading into the fourth quarter of 2016, a total of 25 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, an increase of 9% from the second quarter of 2016. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings significantly (or already accumulated large positions).
According to Insider Monkey’s hedge fund database, Oaktree Capital Management, managed by Howard Marks, holds the biggest position in Tribune Media Co (NYSE:TRCO). The fund has a $517.8 million position in the stock, comprising 6.7% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Angelo Gordon & Co, led by John M. Angelo and Michael L. Gordon, holding a $231.8 million position; the fund has 17.5% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other professional money managers that are bullish encompass Mason Hawkins’s Southeastern Asset Management, Leon Cooperman’s Omega Advisors and Steven Tananbaum’s GoldenTree Asset Management.
