Hedge funds are not perfect. They have their bad picks just like everyone else. Facebook, a stock hedge funds have loved, lost nearly 40% of its value at one point in 2018. Although hedge funds are not perfect, their consensus picks do deliver solid returns, however. Our data show the top 15 S&P 500 stocks among hedge funds at the end of December 2018 yielded an average return of 19.7% year-to-date, vs. a gain of 13.1% for the S&P 500 Index. Because hedge funds have a lot of resources and their consensus picks do well, we pay attention to what they think. In this article, we analyze what the elite funds think of Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. (NASDAQ:CRESY).
Is Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. (NASDAQ:CRESY) undervalued? Hedge funds are betting on the stock. The number of bullish hedge fund positions went up by 2 in recent months. Our calculations also showed that CRESY 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 take a peek at the latest hedge fund action surrounding Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. (NASDAQ:CRESY).
How have hedgies been trading Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. (NASDAQ:CRESY)?
Heading into the first quarter of 2019, a total of 7 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 40% from one quarter earlier. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards CRESY 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.
According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, 683 Capital Partners, managed by Ari Zweiman, holds the number one position in Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. (NASDAQ:CRESY). 683 Capital Partners has a $10.6 million position in the stock, comprising 0.6% of its 13F portfolio. The second most bullish fund manager is Andrew Bellas of General Equity Partners, with a $9.3 million position; 5.4% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other professional money managers that are bullish encompass Jody LaNasa’s Serengeti Asset Management, Richard Mashaal’s Rima Senvest Management and James Dondero’s Highland Capital Management.
As industrywide interest jumped, specific money managers have jumped into Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. (NASDAQ:CRESY) headfirst. General Equity Partners, managed by Andrew Bellas, assembled the most valuable position in Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. (NASDAQ:CRESY). General Equity Partners had $9.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Richard Mashaal’s Rima Senvest Management also made a $0.5 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.
Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. (NASDAQ:CRESY). These stocks are Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc. (NYSE:UBP), Oaktree Specialty Lending Corporation (NASDAQ:OCSL), Eros International plc (NYSE:EROS), and ConnectOne Bancorp Inc (NASDAQ:CNOB). This group of stocks’ market values resemble CRESY’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| UBP | 2 | 11884 | 0 |
| OCSL | 12 | 55436 | -2 |
| EROS | 4 | 7995 | 1 |
| CNOB | 12 | 44013 | -3 |
| Average | 7.5 | 29832 | -1 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 7.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $30 million. That figure was $27 million in CRESY’s case. Oaktree Specialty Lending Corporation (NASDAQ:OCSL) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc. (NYSE:UBP) is the least popular one with only 2 bullish hedge fund positions. Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. (NASDAQ:CRESY) 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. 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. Unfortunately CRESY wasn’t nearly as popular as these 15 stock (hedge fund sentiment was quite bearish); CRESY investors were disappointed as the stock returned -18.4% and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 15 most popular stocks) among hedge funds as 13 of these stocks already outperformed the market this year.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
