There are several ways to beat the market, and investing in small cap stocks has historically been one of them. We like to improve the odds of beating the market further by examining what famous hedge fund operators such as Carl Icahn and George Soros think. Those hedge fund operators make billions of dollars each year by hiring the best and the brightest to do research on stocks, including small cap stocks that big brokerage houses simply don’t cover. Because of Carl Icahn and other successful funds’ exemplary historical records, we pay attention to their small cap picks. In this article, we use hedge fund filing data to analyze 8Point3 Energy Partners LP (NASDAQ:CAFD).
At the end of September, 12 funds from the Insider Monkey database held shares of 8Point3 Energy Partners LP (NASDAQ:CAFD). It’s worth mentioning that the stock registered an increase in popularity among smart money investors during the third 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 The Andersons, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANDE), Repligen Corporation (NASDAQ:RGEN), and Royce Value Trust Inc (NYSE:RVT) to gather more data points.
Follow 8Point3 Energy Partners Lp (NASDAQ:CAFD)
Follow 8Point3 Energy Partners Lp (NASDAQ:CAFD)
At Insider Monkey, we’ve developed an investment strategy that has delivered market-beating returns over the past 12 months. Our strategy identifies the 100 best-performing funds of the previous quarter from among the collection of 700+ successful funds that we track in our database, which we accomplish using our returns methodology. We then study the portfolios of those 100 funds using the latest 13F data to uncover the 30 most popular mid-cap stocks (market caps of between $1 billion and $10 billion) among them to hold until the next filing period. This strategy delivered 18% gains over the past 12 months, more than doubling the 8% returns enjoyed by the S&P 500 ETFs.
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Now, let’s take a peek at the key action encompassing 8Point3 Energy Partners LP (NASDAQ:CAFD).
Hedge fund activity in 8Point3 Energy Partners LP (NASDAQ:CAFD)
At the end of the third quarter, a total of 12 funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, compared to eight funds a quarter earlier. By comparison, 11 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in CAFD heading into this year. So, let’s examine 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, Ken Hahn’s Quentec Asset Management has the most valuable position in 8Point3 Energy Partners LP (NASDAQ:CAFD), worth close to $18.8 million, accounting for 2.6% of its total 13F portfolio. On Quentec Asset Management’s heels is Marshall Wace LLP, led by Paul Marshall and Ian Wace, which holds a $9.8 million position; 0.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining professional money managers that hold long positions comprise Millennium Management, one of the 10 largest hedge funds in the world, Bernard Lambilliotte’s Ecofin Ltd, and Gregory Fraser, Rudolph Kluiber, and Timothy Krochuk’s GRT Capital Partners. We should note that GRT Capital Partners is 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.
With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, some big names have jumped into 8Point3 Energy Partners LP (NASDAQ:CAFD) headfirst. Marshall Wace LLP initiated the most valuable position in 8Point3 Energy Partners LP (NASDAQ:CAFD). J. Alan Reid, Jr.’s Forward Management also initiated a $1 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Emanuel J. Friedman’s EJF Capital, George Hall’s Clinton Group, and Phil Frohlich’s Prescott Group Capital Management.
Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as 8Point3 Energy Partners LP (NASDAQ:CAFD) but similarly valued. We will take a look at The Andersons, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANDE), Repligen Corporation (NASDAQ:RGEN), Royce Value Trust Inc (NYSE:RVT), and Safety Insurance Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:SAFT). This group of stocks’ market caps are closest to CAFD’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| ANDE | 12 | 48680 | 3 |
| RGEN | 14 | 63917 | 0 |
| RVT | 5 | 4413 | 1 |
| SAFT | 11 | 31932 | 0 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 11 funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $37 million. That figure was $48 million in CAFD’s case. Repligen Corporation (NASDAQ:RGEN) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Royce Value Trust Inc (NYSE:RVT) is the least popular one with only five bullish hedge fund positions. 8Point3 Energy Partners LP (NASDAQ:CAFD) 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 RGEN might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.
Disclosure: none
