Insider Monkey finished processing more than 700 13F filings submitted by hedge funds and prominent investors. These filings show these funds’ portfolio positions as of December 31st, 2018. In this article we are going to take a look at smart money sentiment towards Loma Negra Compania Industrial Argentina Sociedad Anonima (NYSE:LOMA).
Is Loma Negra Compania Industrial Argentina Sociedad Anonima (NYSE:LOMA) an excellent investment right now? Investors who are in the know are getting less bullish. The number of long hedge fund bets were cut by 4 in recent months. Our calculations also showed that LOMA isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.
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Let’s take a glance at the recent hedge fund action regarding Loma Negra Compania Industrial Argentina Sociedad Anonima (NYSE:LOMA).
What does the smart money think about Loma Negra Compania Industrial Argentina Sociedad Anonima (NYSE:LOMA)?
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 -36% from the second quarter of 2018. By comparison, 13 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in LOMA a year ago. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).
Among these funds, EMS Capital held the most valuable stake in Loma Negra Compania Industrial Argentina Sociedad Anonima (NYSE:LOMA), which was worth $4.1 million at the end of the fourth quarter. On the second spot was Highland Capital Management which amassed $3.9 million worth of shares. Moreover, Millennium Management, Marathon Asset Management, and Cheyne Capital were also bullish on Loma Negra Compania Industrial Argentina Sociedad Anonima (NYSE:LOMA), allocating a large percentage of their portfolios to this stock.
Seeing as Loma Negra Compania Industrial Argentina Sociedad Anonima (NYSE:LOMA) has witnessed falling interest from the smart money, it’s safe to say that there exists a select few hedgies that decided to sell off their entire stakes last quarter. Interestingly, David Halpert’s Prince Street Capital Management sold off the biggest stake of the “upper crust” of funds watched by Insider Monkey, worth about $4.8 million in stock, and Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management was right behind this move, as the fund dropped about $4.7 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 4 funds last quarter.
Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Loma Negra Compania Industrial Argentina Sociedad Anonima (NYSE:LOMA) but similarly valued. These stocks are Universal Insurance Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:UVE), Nevsun Resources Ltd. (NYSE:NSU), S & T Bancorp Inc (NASDAQ:STBA), and Gazit Globe Ltd. (NYSE:GZT). All of these stocks’ market caps match LOMA’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| UVE | 20 | 40809 | 6 |
| NSU | 12 | 141823 | -3 |
| STBA | 8 | 4752 | 2 |
| GZT | 4 | 13411 | 0 |
| Average | 11 | 50199 | 1.25 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 11 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $50 million. That figure was $14 million in LOMA’s case. Universal Insurance Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:UVE) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Gazit Globe Ltd. (NYSE:GZT) is the least popular one with only 4 bullish hedge fund positions. Loma Negra Compania Industrial Argentina Sociedad Anonima (NYSE:LOMA) 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 LOMA wasn’t nearly as popular as these 15 stock (hedge fund sentiment was quite bearish); LOMA investors were disappointed as the stock returned 1.3% 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.
