Most investors tend to think that hedge funds and other asset managers are worthless, as they cannot beat even simple index fund portfolios. In fact, most people expect hedge funds to compete with and outperform the bull market that we have witnessed over the past few years. However, hedge funds are generally partially hedged and aim at delivering attractive risk-adjusted returns rather than following the ups and downs of equity markets, hoping that they will outperform the broader market. Our research shows that hedge funds do have great stock picking skills, so let’s take a glance at the smart money sentiment towards Marcus Corporation (NYSE:MCS).
Marcus Corporation (NYSE:MCS) shareholders have witnessed an increase in hedge fund sentiment recently. At the end of this article, we will also compare Marcus Corporation (NYSE:MCS) to other stocks, including Haverty Furniture Companies, Inc. (NYSE:HVT), Unifi, Inc. (NYSE:UFI), and Blackrock Muni Intermediate Drtn Fnd Inc (NYSE:MUI) to get a better sense of its popularity.
Follow Marcus Corp (NYSE:MCS)
Follow Marcus Corp (NYSE:MCS)
At the moment, there are plenty of signals shareholders have at their disposal to size up publicly traded companies. A duo of the less utilized signals are hedge fund and insider trading interest. Our experts have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite fund managers can outclass the broader indices by a significant amount (see the details here).
With all of this in mind, we’re going to take a gander at the fresh action regarding Marcus Corporation (NYSE:MCS).
How have hedgies been trading Marcus Corporation (NYSE:MCS)?
At the end of the last quarter, a total of 12 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, an increase of 9% from the second quarter. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes substantially (or already accumulated large positions).
When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, GAMCO Investors, managed by Mario Gabelli, holds the largest position in Marcus Corporation (NYSE:MCS). GAMCO has a $25.4 million position in the stock, comprising 0.2% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is GMT Capital, managed by Thomas E. Claugus, which holds a $13.2 million position; 0.3% of its equity portfolio is allocated to the company. Other peers that are bullish contain Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and Renaissance Technologies.
As industry-wide interest jumped, key hedge funds were leading the bulls’ herd. Algert Coldiron Investors, managed by Peter Algert and Kevin Coldiron, created the largest position in Marcus Corporation (NYSE:MCS). Algert Coldiron had $0.6 million invested in the company at the end of the third quarter. Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management also initiated a $0.3 million position during the quarter.
Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Marcus Corporation (NYSE:MCS) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Haverty Furniture Companies, Inc. (NYSE:HVT), Unifi, Inc. (NYSE:UFI), Blackrock Muni Intermediate Drtn Fnd Inc (NYSE:MUI), and Epizyme Inc (NASDAQ:EPZM). All of these stocks’ market caps resemble Marcus Corporation (NYSE:MCS)’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| HVT | 12 | 73201 | 1 |
| UFI | 9 | 56219 | 0 |
| MUI | 4 | 3557 | 0 |
| EPZM | 15 | 85485 | -2 |
As you can see, these stocks had an average of 10 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $55 million. That figure was $50 million in Marcus Corporation (NYSE:MCS)’s case. Epizyme Inc (NASDAQ:EPZM) is the most popular stock in this table, while Blackrock Muni Intermediate Drtn Fnd Inc (NYSE:MUI) is the least popular one with only four long hedge fund positions. Marcus Corporation (NYSE:MCS) 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. In this regard Epizyme Inc (NASDAQ:EPZM) might be a better candidate to consider a long position.
