How do we determine whether Seacor Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CKH) makes for a good investment at the moment? We analyze the sentiment of a select group of the very best investors in the world, who spend immense amounts of time and resources studying companies. They may not always be right (no one is), but data shows that their consensus long positions have historically outperformed the market when we adjust for known risk factors.
Seacor Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CKH) investors should be aware of a decrease in hedge fund sentiment in recent months. CKH was in 16 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the fourth quarter of 2018. There were 19 hedge funds in our database with CKH holdings at the end of the previous quarter. Our calculations also showed that CKH isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.
In the financial world there are a large number of tools investors have at their disposal to grade stocks. A pair of the most under-the-radar tools are hedge fund and insider trading indicators. We have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best fund managers can outperform the broader indices by a solid amount. Insider Monkey’s flagship best performing hedge funds strategy returned 20.7% year to date (through March 12th) and outperformed the market even though it draws its stock picks among small-cap stocks. This strategy also outperformed the market by 32 percentage points since its inception (see the details here). That’s why we believe hedge fund sentiment is a useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.
Let’s check out the recent hedge fund action surrounding Seacor Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CKH).
What have hedge funds been doing with Seacor Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CKH)?
Heading into the first quarter of 2019, a total of 16 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of -16% from one quarter earlier. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards CKH over the last 14 quarters. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes significantly (or already accumulated large positions).
The largest stake in Seacor Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CKH) was held by Royce & Associates, which reported holding $52.6 million worth of stock at the end of December. It was followed by Renaissance Technologies with a $43.3 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included GLG Partners, D E Shaw, and Two Sigma Advisors.
Seeing as Seacor Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CKH) has witnessed declining sentiment from the smart money, we can see that there is a sect of hedgies who sold off their entire stakes in the third quarter. Interestingly, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group dumped the largest stake of the 700 funds tracked by Insider Monkey, worth about $1.8 million in stock. Alec Litowitz and Ross Laser’s fund, Magnetar Capital, also dropped its stock, about $0.6 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 3 funds in the third quarter.
Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Seacor Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CKH). We will take a look at Banc of California, Inc. (NYSE:BANC), Select Energy Services, Inc. (NYSE:WTTR), Avon Products, Inc. (NYSE:AVP), and SP Plus Corp (NASDAQ:SP). This group of stocks’ market values match CKH’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| BANC | 17 | 92607 | 2 |
| WTTR | 12 | 57230 | -2 |
| AVP | 24 | 129120 | -2 |
| SP | 12 | 90100 | 0 |
| Average | 16.25 | 92264 | -0.5 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 16.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $92 million. That figure was $114 million in CKH’s case. Avon Products, Inc. (NYSE:AVP) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Select Energy Services, Inc. (NYSE:WTTR) is the least popular one with only 12 bullish hedge fund positions. Seacor Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CKH) 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 CKH, though not to the same extent, as the stock returned 18.7% and outperformed the market as well.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
