The latest 13F reporting period has come and gone, and Insider Monkey is again at the forefront when it comes to making use of this gold mine of data. We have processed the filings of the more than 700 world-class investment firms that we track and now have access to the collective wisdom contained in these filings, which are based on their December 31 holdings, data that is available nowhere else. Should you consider Core Laboratories N.V. (NYSE:CLB) for your portfolio? We’ll look to this invaluable collective wisdom for the answer.
Core Laboratories N.V. (NYSE:CLB) was in 15 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the fourth quarter of 2018. CLB shareholders have witnessed an increase in enthusiasm from smart money in recent months. There were 14 hedge funds in our database with CLB positions at the end of the previous quarter. Our calculations also showed that CLB isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.
Hedge funds’ reputation as shrewd investors has been tarnished in the last decade as their hedged returns couldn’t keep up with the unhedged returns of the market indices. Our research has shown that hedge funds’ large-cap stock picks indeed failed to beat the market between 1999 and 2016. However, we were able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that outperformed the market by 32 percentage points since May 2014 through March 12, 2019 (see the details here). We were also able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that’ll significantly underperform the market. We have been tracking and sharing the list of these stocks since February 2017 and they lost 27.5% through March 12, 2019. That’s why we believe hedge fund sentiment is an extremely useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.
Let’s go over the latest hedge fund action regarding Core Laboratories N.V. (NYSE:CLB).
Hedge fund activity in Core Laboratories N.V. (NYSE:CLB)
At Q4’s end, a total of 15 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 7% from the previous quarter. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards CLB over the last 14 quarters. So, let’s examine which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
More specifically, Select Equity Group was the largest shareholder of Core Laboratories N.V. (NYSE:CLB), with a stake worth $57 million reported as of the end of December. Trailing Select Equity Group was Millennium Management, which amassed a stake valued at $47.6 million. Fisher Asset Management, Ariel Investments, and Renaissance Technologies were also very fond of the stock, giving the stock large weights in their portfolios.
Now, some big names were leading the bulls’ herd. AQR Capital Management, managed by Cliff Asness, initiated the most valuable position in Core Laboratories N.V. (NYSE:CLB). AQR Capital Management had $1.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management also initiated a $0.9 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new CLB investors: Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management, Minhua Zhang’s Weld Capital Management, and Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management.
Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Core Laboratories N.V. (NYSE:CLB). These stocks are Liberty Latin America Ltd. (NASDAQ:LILAK), Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND), AllianceBernstein Holding LP (NYSE:AB), and LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:RAMP). This group of stocks’ market caps match CLB’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| LILAK | 19 | 322082 | 0 |
| ASND | 26 | 1358060 | -1 |
| AB | 7 | 18133 | 1 |
| RAMP | 18 | 314152 | 3 |
| Average | 17.5 | 503107 | 0.75 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 17.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $503 million. That figure was $217 million in CLB’s case. Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand AllianceBernstein Holding LP (NYSE:AB) is the least popular one with only 7 bullish hedge fund positions. Core Laboratories N.V. (NYSE:CLB) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our calculations showed that top 15 most popular stocks) among hedge funds returned 24.2% through April 22nd and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by more than 7 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on CLB as the stock returned 26.5% and outperformed the market by an even larger margin.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
