Before we spend countless hours researching a company, we’d like to analyze what insiders, hedge funds and billionaire investors think of the stock first. This is a necessary first step in our investment process because our research has shown that the elite investors’ consensus returns have been exceptional. In the following paragraphs, we find out what the billionaire investors and hedge funds think of Thor Industries, Inc. (NYSE:THO).
Thor Industries, Inc. (NYSE:THO) was in 20 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of March. THO has experienced a decrease in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds of late. There were 22 hedge funds in our database with THO positions at the end of the previous quarter. Our calculations also showed that THO isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.
To the average investor there are plenty of tools stock traders put to use to assess publicly traded companies. A couple of the most innovative tools are hedge fund and insider trading indicators. Our researchers have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top hedge fund managers can trounce the market by a significant margin (see the details here).
Let’s take a look at the key hedge fund action encompassing Thor Industries, Inc. (NYSE:THO).
How have hedgies been trading Thor Industries, Inc. (NYSE:THO)?
Heading into the second quarter of 2019, a total of 20 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of -9% from the fourth quarter of 2018. On the other hand, there were a total of 28 hedge funds with a bullish position in THO a year ago. So, let’s check out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
More specifically, Two Sigma Advisors was the largest shareholder of Thor Industries, Inc. (NYSE:THO), with a stake worth $26.4 million reported as of the end of March. Trailing Two Sigma Advisors was Royce & Associates, which amassed a stake valued at $20.4 million. Carlson Capital, Renaissance Technologies, and Sprott Asset Management were also very fond of the stock, giving the stock large weights in their portfolios.
Due to the fact that Thor Industries, Inc. (NYSE:THO) has witnessed declining sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, logic holds that there lies a certain “tier” of funds that elected to cut their full holdings in the third quarter. Interestingly, Richard Chilton’s Chilton Investment Company dumped the largest position of all the hedgies monitored by Insider Monkey, comprising about $38.2 million in stock, and John Smith Clark’s Southpoint Capital Advisors was right behind this move, as the fund cut about $13.9 million worth. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 2 funds in the third quarter.
Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Thor Industries, Inc. (NYSE:THO) but similarly valued. These stocks are Physicians Realty Trust (NYSE:DOC), The Boston Beer Company Inc (NYSE:SAM), Spirit Realty Capital Inc (NYSE:SRC), and FireEye Inc (NASDAQ:FEYE). This group of stocks’ market valuations match THO’s market valuation.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| DOC | 11 | 105688 | -1 |
| SAM | 22 | 386611 | 3 |
| SRC | 17 | 301040 | -2 |
| FEYE | 27 | 365577 | -1 |
| Average | 19.25 | 289729 | -0.25 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 19.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $290 million. That figure was $98 million in THO’s case. FireEye Inc (NASDAQ:FEYE) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Physicians Realty Trust (NYSE:DOC) is the least popular one with only 11 bullish hedge fund positions. Thor Industries, Inc. (NYSE:THO) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. 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. Unfortunately THO wasn’t nearly as popular as these 20 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on THO were disappointed as the stock returned -11.2% during the same period and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds as 13 of these stocks already outperformed the market so far in Q2.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
