Here’s What Hedge Funds Think About Hubbell Incorporated (HUBB)

We at Insider Monkey have gone over 738 13F filings that hedge funds and prominent investors are required to file by the SEC The 13F filings show the funds’ and investors’ portfolio positions as of March 31st. In this article, we look at what those funds think of Hubbell Incorporated (NYSE:HUBB) based on that data.

Is Hubbell Incorporated (NYSE:HUBB) worth your attention right now? Hedge funds are becoming less confident. The number of long hedge fund positions were trimmed by 3 in recent months. Our calculations also showed that hubb isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.

At the moment there are a large number of methods investors put to use to analyze publicly traded companies. A duo of the most innovative methods are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. We have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best money managers can outclass the market by a very impressive margin (see the details here).

Let’s analyze the key hedge fund action surrounding Hubbell Incorporated (NYSE:HUBB).

What have hedge funds been doing with Hubbell Incorporated (NYSE:HUBB)?

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 21 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of -13% from the fourth quarter of 2018. By comparison, 28 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in HUBB a year ago. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings considerably (or already accumulated large positions).

The largest stake in Hubbell Incorporated (NYSE:HUBB) was held by Royce & Associates, which reported holding $109.2 million worth of stock at the end of March. It was followed by Impax Asset Management with a $71.2 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included Carlson Capital, Balyasny Asset Management, and Renaissance Technologies.

Judging by the fact that Hubbell Incorporated (NYSE:HUBB) has experienced bearish sentiment from the smart money, logic holds that there lies a certain “tier” of fund managers who were dropping their positions entirely heading into Q3. Intriguingly, Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management sold off the largest stake of the “upper crust” of funds followed by Insider Monkey, totaling an estimated $20.3 million in stock. Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s fund, Marshall Wace LLP, also sold off its stock, about $4.2 million worth. These transactions are interesting, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 3 funds heading into Q3.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Hubbell Incorporated (NYSE:HUBB) but similarly valued. These stocks are LATAM Airlines Group S.A. (NYSE:LTM), Autoliv Inc. (NYSE:ALV), Planet Fitness Inc (NYSE:PLNT), and Donaldson Company, Inc. (NYSE:DCI). This group of stocks’ market valuations resemble HUBB’s market valuation.

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As you can see these stocks had an average of 15.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $272 million. That figure was $358 million in HUBB’s case. Planet Fitness Inc (NYSE:PLNT) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand LATAM Airlines Group S.A. (NYSE:LTM) is the least popular one with only 8 bullish hedge fund positions. Hubbell Incorporated (NYSE:HUBB) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our calculations showed that top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 1.9% in Q2 through May 30th and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by more than 3 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on HUBB, though not to the same extent, as the stock returned 0% during the same time frame and outperformed the market as well.

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