A whopping number of 13F filings filed with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has been processed by Insider Monkey so that individual investors can look at the overall hedge fund sentiment towards the stocks included in their watchlists. These freshly-submitted public filings disclose money managers’ equity positions as of the end of the three-month period that ended December 31, so let’s proceed with the discussion of the hedge fund sentiment on Adtalem Global Education Inc. (NYSE:ATGE).
Adtalem Global Education Inc. (NYSE:ATGE) shareholders have witnessed an increase in support from the world’s most elite money managers lately. ATGE was in 20 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the fourth quarter of 2018. There were 16 hedge funds in our database with ATGE positions at the end of the previous quarter. Our calculations also showed that ATGE isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.
To the average investor there are a multitude of indicators market participants can use to grade stocks. Some of the less known indicators are hedge fund and insider trading moves. We have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the top money managers can outclass the S&P 500 by a very impressive amount (see the details here).
We’re going to check out the recent hedge fund action surrounding Adtalem Global Education Inc. (NYSE:ATGE).
Hedge fund activity in Adtalem Global Education Inc. (NYSE:ATGE)
At the end of the fourth quarter, a total of 20 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 25% from the second quarter of 2018. By comparison, 16 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in ATGE 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.
More specifically, AQR Capital Management was the largest shareholder of Adtalem Global Education Inc. (NYSE:ATGE), with a stake worth $53.7 million reported as of the end of September. Trailing AQR Capital Management was Ariel Investments, which amassed a stake valued at $45.1 million. Newtyn Management, D E Shaw, and Arrowstreet Capital were also very fond of the stock, giving the stock large weights in their portfolios.
Now, key hedge funds were breaking ground themselves. Arrowstreet Capital, managed by Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell, created the biggest position in Adtalem Global Education Inc. (NYSE:ATGE). Arrowstreet Capital had $10.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp also made a $1.4 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Minhua Zhang’s Weld Capital Management, David Costen Haley’s HBK Investments, and Ben Levine, Andrew Manuel and Stefan Renold’s LMR Partners.
Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Adtalem Global Education Inc. (NYSE:ATGE). These stocks are Taubman Centers, Inc. (NYSE:TCO), Manhattan Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ:MANH), Clean Harbors Inc (NYSE:CLH), and Verint Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:VRNT). This group of stocks’ market values are closest to ATGE’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| TCO | 20 | 170900 | 0 |
| MANH | 20 | 240659 | -3 |
| CLH | 23 | 235723 | 5 |
| VRNT | 18 | 242649 | 0 |
| Average | 20.25 | 222483 | 0.5 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 20.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $222 million. That figure was $178 million in ATGE’s case. Clean Harbors Inc (NYSE:CLH) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Verint Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:VRNT) is the least popular one with only 18 bullish hedge fund positions. Adtalem Global Education Inc. (NYSE:ATGE) 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. Our calculations showed that top 15 most popular stocks) among hedge funds returned 24.2% through April 22nd and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by more than 7 percentage points. Unfortunately ATGE wasn’t nearly as popular as these 15 stock (hedge fund sentiment was quite bearish); ATGE investors were disappointed as the stock returned 0.7% and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 15 most popular stocks) among hedge funds as 13 of these stocks already outperformed the market this year.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
