Here is What Hedge Funds Think About Winnebago Industries, Inc. (WGO)

Last year we predicted the arrival of the first US recession since 2009 and we told in advance that the market will decline by at least 20% in (Recession is Imminent: We Need A Travel Ban NOW). In these volatile markets we scrutinize hedge fund filings to get a reading on which direction each stock might be going. In this article, we will take a closer look at hedge fund sentiment towards Winnebago Industries, Inc. (NYSE:WGO).

Winnebago Industries, Inc. (NYSE:WGO) investors should pay attention to an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds in recent months. Winnebago Industries, Inc. (NYSE:WGO) was in 30 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the first quarter of 2021. The all time high for this statistic is 33. There were 27 hedge funds in our database with WGO holdings at the end of December. Our calculations also showed that WGO isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings).

According to most traders, hedge funds are assumed to be slow, old financial tools of the past. While there are over 8000 funds in operation at present, Our researchers look at the bigwigs of this club, approximately 850 funds. It is estimated that this group of investors administer the lion’s share of the smart money’s total capital, and by watching their inimitable investments, Insider Monkey has determined numerous investment strategies that have historically outstripped the broader indices. Insider Monkey’s flagship short hedge fund strategy outpaced the S&P 500 short ETFs by around 20 percentage points annually since its inception in March 2017. Also, our monthly newsletter’s portfolio of long stock picks returned 206.8% since March 2017 (through May 2021) and beat the S&P 500 Index by more than 115 percentage points. You can download a sample issue of this newsletter on our website .

Richard Driehaus of Driehaus Capital

At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, lithium mining is one of the fastest growing industries right now, so we are checking out stock pitches like this emerging lithium stock. We go through lists like the 10 best EV stocks to pick the next Tesla that will deliver a 10x return. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. You can subscribe to our free daily newsletter on our homepage. Keeping this in mind let’s take a gander at the new hedge fund action surrounding Winnebago Industries, Inc. (NYSE:WGO).

Do Hedge Funds Think WGO Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?

Heading into the second quarter of 2021, a total of 30 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 11% from the fourth quarter of 2020. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in WGO over the last 23 quarters. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings substantially (or already accumulated large positions).

When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management has the number one position in Winnebago Industries, Inc. (NYSE:WGO), worth close to $131.1 million, amounting to 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. On Fisher Asset Management’s heels is Norbert Lou of Punch Card Capital, with a $78.5 million position; 21.7% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining professional money managers that hold long positions consist of Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Jack Woodruff’s Candlestick Capital Management and Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Punch Card Capital allocated the biggest weight to Winnebago Industries, Inc. (NYSE:WGO), around 21.69% of its 13F portfolio. MIK Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, setting aside 4.99 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to WGO.

As industrywide interest jumped, specific money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. MIK Capital, managed by Kamyar Khajavi, assembled the most outsized position in Winnebago Industries, Inc. (NYSE:WGO). MIK Capital had $13.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Richard Driehaus’s Driehaus Capital also initiated a $10.3 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new WGO investors: Ken Grossman and Glen Schneider’s SG Capital Management, Richard SchimeláandáLawrence Sapanski’s Cinctive Capital Management, and Sander Gerber’s Hudson Bay Capital Management.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Winnebago Industries, Inc. (NYSE:WGO) but similarly valued. These stocks are Uniti Group Inc. (NASDAQ:UNIT), Nova Measuring Instruments Ltd. (NASDAQ:NVMI), Manchester United PLC (NYSE:MANU), Skyline Champion Corporation (NYSE:SKY), Vericel Corp (NASDAQ:VCEL), RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ), and TransAlta Corporation (NYSE:TAC). This group of stocks’ market values are closest to WGO’s market value.

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As you can see these stocks had an average of 16.4 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $178 million. That figure was $441 million in WGO’s case. Skyline Champion Corporation (NYSE:SKY) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand TransAlta Corporation (NYSE:TAC) is the least popular one with only 11 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Winnebago Industries, Inc. (NYSE:WGO) is more popular among hedge funds. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for WGO is 85.3. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. Our calculations showed that top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 95.8% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 40 percentage points. These stocks gained 22.8% in 2021 through July 2nd and still beat the market by 6 percentage points. Unfortunately WGO wasn’t nearly as popular as these 5 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on WGO were disappointed as the stock returned -11.7% since the end of the first quarter (through 7/2) and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds as most of these stocks already outperformed the market since 2019.

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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.

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