The 700+ hedge funds and money managers tracked by Insider Monkey have already compiled and submitted their 13F filings for the third quarter, which unveil their equity positions as of September 30. We went through these filings, fixed typos and other more significant errors and identified the changes in hedge fund positions. Our extensive review of these public filings is finally over, so this article is set to reveal the smart money sentiment towards HNI Corp (NYSE:HNI) .
HNI Corp (NYSE:HNI) was in 17 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2016. HNI shareholders have witnessed an increase in hedge fund sentiment recently. There were 11 hedge funds in our database with HNI holdings at the end of the previous quarter. The level and the change in hedge fund popularity aren’t the only variables you need to analyze to decipher hedge funds’ perspectives. A stock may witness a boost in popularity but it may still be less popular than similarly priced stocks. That’s why at the end of this article we will examine companies such as Carrizo Oil & Gas, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRZO), Kosmos Energy Ltd (NYSE:KOS), and Cornerstone OnDemand, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSOD) to gather more data points.
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Hedge fund activity in HNI Corp (NYSE:HNI)
At the end of the third quarter, a total of 17 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a 55% jump from the previous quarter. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish positions in HNI over the last 5 quarters. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings considerably (or already accumulated large positions).
When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates has the biggest position in HNI Corp (NYSE:HNI), worth close to $16.5 million. Coming in second is Renaissance Technologies, led by Jim Simons, holding a $9.8 million position. Remaining professional money managers with similar optimism include Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital, Roger Ibbotson’s Zebra Capital Management, and Cliff Asness’ AQR Capital Management. We should note that none of these hedge funds are among our list of the 100 best performing hedge funds which is based on the performance of their 13F long positions in non-microcap stocks.
As one would reasonably expect, some big names were leading the bulls’ herd. Arrowstreet Capital initiated the biggest position in HNI Corp (NYSE:HNI). Arrowstreet Capital had $3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. David E. Shaw’s D E Shaw also made a $0.4 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management, Joshua Packwood and Schuster Tanger’s Radix Partners, and George Hall’s Clinton Group.
Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to HNI Corp (NYSE:HNI). These stocks are Carrizo Oil & Gas, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRZO), Kosmos Energy Ltd (NYSE:KOS), Cornerstone OnDemand, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSOD), and Dillard’s, Inc. (NYSE:DDS). All of these stocks’ market caps resemble HNI’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| CRZO | 19 | 167623 | -6 |
| KOS | 7 | 33509 | -2 |
| CSOD | 29 | 400126 | 2 |
| DDS | 21 | 228246 | 3 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 19 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $207 million. That figure was $37 million in HNI’s case. Cornerstone OnDemand, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSOD) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Kosmos Energy Ltd (NYSE:KOS) is the least popular one with only 7 bullish hedge fund positions. HNI Corp (NYSE:HNI) 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. In this regard CSOD might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.
Disclosure: None
