We at Insider Monkey have gone over 821 13F filings that hedge funds and prominent investors are required to file by the SEC The 13F filings show the funds’ and investors’ portfolio positions as of March 31st, near the height of the coronavirus market crash. In this article, we look at what those funds think of International Tower Hill Mines Ltd (NYSE:THM) based on that data.
International Tower Hill Mines Ltd (NYSE:THM) shares haven’t seen a lot of action during the first quarter. Overall, hedge fund sentiment was unchanged. The stock was in 4 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the first quarter of 2020. 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 Civeo Corporation (NYSE:CVEO), Epsilon Energy Ltd. (NASDAQ:EPSN), and The Goldfield Corporation (NYSE:GV) to gather more data points. Our calculations also showed that THM isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings and see the video for a quick look at the top 5 stocks).
Video: Watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.
In the eyes of most investors, hedge funds are seen as slow, outdated financial tools of years past. While there are more than 8000 funds with their doors open at present, Our researchers choose to focus on the bigwigs of this group, around 850 funds. It is estimated that this group of investors direct the lion’s share of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by paying attention to their top picks, Insider Monkey has unearthed many investment strategies that have historically surpassed the broader indices. Insider Monkey’s flagship short hedge fund strategy exceeded the S&P 500 short ETFs by around 20 percentage points annually since its inception in March 2017. Our portfolio of short stocks lost 36% since February 2017 (through May 18th) even though the market was up 30% during the same period. We just shared a list of 8 short targets in our latest quarterly update .
John Paulson of Paulson & Co
At Insider Monkey we leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, 2020’s unprecedented market conditions provide us with the highest number of trading opportunities in a decade. So we are checking out stocks recommended/scorned by legendary Bill Miller. We interview hedge fund managers and ask them about their best ideas. If you want to find out the best healthcare stock to buy right now, you can watch our latest hedge fund manager interview here. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. Our best call in 2020 was shorting the market when the S&P 500 was trading at 3150 after realizing the coronavirus pandemic’s significance before most investors. With all of this in mind let’s check out the latest hedge fund action regarding International Tower Hill Mines Ltd (NYSE:THM).
How have hedgies been trading International Tower Hill Mines Ltd (NYSE:THM)?
At the end of the first quarter, a total of 4 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 0% from the fourth quarter of 2019. By comparison, 5 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in THM a year ago. So, let’s see which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Paulson & Co, managed by John Paulson, holds the largest position in International Tower Hill Mines Ltd (NYSE:THM). Paulson & Co has a $22.3 million position in the stock, comprising 0.9% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Sprott Asset Management, managed by Eric Sprott, which holds a $11.8 million position; the fund has 1.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other members of the smart money with similar optimism contain David Iben’s Kopernik Global Investors, Renaissance Technologies and . In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Sprott Asset Management allocated the biggest weight to International Tower Hill Mines Ltd (NYSE:THM), around 1.08% of its 13F portfolio. Paulson & Co is also relatively very bullish on the stock, designating 0.85 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to THM.
Earlier we told you that the aggregate hedge fund interest in the stock was unchanged and we view this as a negative development. Even though there weren’t any hedge funds dumping their holdings during the third quarter, there weren’t any hedge funds initiating brand new positions. This indicates that hedge funds, at the very best, perceive this stock as dead money and they haven’t identified any viable catalysts that can attract investor attention.
Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to International Tower Hill Mines Ltd (NYSE:THM). We will take a look at Civeo Corporation (NYSE:CVEO), Epsilon Energy Ltd. (NASDAQ:EPSN), The Goldfield Corporation (NYSE:GV), and VOXX International Corp (NASDAQ:VOXX). This group of stocks’ market values are similar to THM’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| CVEO | 12 | 27822 | -6 |
| EPSN | 1 | 7076 | 0 |
| GV | 1 | 5373 | 0 |
| VOXX | 7 | 14898 | -1 |
| Average | 5.25 | 13792 | -1.75 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 5.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $14 million. That figure was $37 million in THM’s case. Civeo Corporation (NYSE:CVEO) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Epsilon Energy Ltd. (NASDAQ:EPSN) is the least popular one with only 1 bullish hedge fund positions. International Tower Hill Mines Ltd (NYSE:THM) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our calculations showed that top 10 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 41.4% in 2019 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 10.1 percentage points. These stocks gained 8.3% in 2020 through the end of May and still beat the market by 13.2 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on THM as the stock returned 205.4% during the second quarter and outperformed the market by an even larger margin.
Follow International Tower Hill Mines Ltd (NYSEMKT:THM)
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
