Is AMC Networks Inc (AMCX) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds?

We at Insider Monkey have gone over 866 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. In this article, we look at what those funds think of AMC Networks Inc (NASDAQ:AMCX) based on that data.

AMC Networks Inc (NASDAQ:AMCX) was in 22 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of March. The all time high for this statistic is 35. AMCX investors should pay attention to an increase in enthusiasm from smart money recently. There were 21 hedge funds in our database with AMCX holdings at the end of December. Our calculations also showed that AMCX isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings).

Today there are a large number of tools market participants have at their disposal to assess their holdings. A couple of the most underrated tools are hedge fund and insider trading indicators. Our experts have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite money managers can outperform the S&P 500 by a healthy amount (see the details here). Also, our monthly newsletter’s portfolio of long stock picks returned 206.8% since March 2017 (through May 2021) and beat the S&P 500 Index by more than 115 percentage points. You can download a sample issue of this newsletter on our website .

Paul Tudor Jones of Tudor Investment Corp

At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, Chuck Schumer recently stated that marijuana legalization will be a Senate priority. So, we are checking out this under the radar stock that will benefit from this. We go through lists like the 10 best battery stocks to pick the next Tesla that will deliver a 10x return. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. You can subscribe to our free daily newsletter on our homepage. Keeping this in mind let’s go over the new hedge fund action regarding AMC Networks Inc (NASDAQ:AMCX).

Do Hedge Funds Think AMCX Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?

At first quarter’s end, a total of 22 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 5% from one quarter earlier. On the other hand, there were a total of 23 hedge funds with a bullish position in AMCX a year ago. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes substantially (or already accumulated large positions).

More specifically, Contrarius Investment Management was the largest shareholder of AMC Networks Inc (NASDAQ:AMCX), with a stake worth $116.8 million reported as of the end of March. Trailing Contrarius Investment Management was GAMCO Investors, which amassed a stake valued at $23.6 million. Arrowstreet Capital, Renaissance Technologies, and D E Shaw were also very fond of the stock, becoming one of the largest hedge fund holders of the company. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Contrarius Investment Management allocated the biggest weight to AMC Networks Inc (NASDAQ:AMCX), around 6.61% of its 13F portfolio. GAMCO Investors is also relatively very bullish on the stock, setting aside 0.21 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to AMCX.

As aggregate interest increased, specific money managers have been driving this bullishness. D E Shaw, managed by D. E. Shaw, created the biggest position in AMC Networks Inc (NASDAQ:AMCX). D E Shaw had $11.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management also initiated a $2.8 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new AMCX positions are Greg Eisner’s Engineers Gate Manager, Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp, and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as AMC Networks Inc (NASDAQ:AMCX) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Brandywine Realty Trust (NYSE:BDN), Mueller Water Products, Inc. (NYSE:MWA), Glu Mobile Inc. (NASDAQ:GLUU), ThredUp Inc. (NASDAQ:TDUP), Monro Inc (NASDAQ:MNRO), Coeur Mining, Inc. (NYSE:CDE), and Prestige Consumer Healthcare Inc. (NYSE:PBH). This group of stocks’ market values resemble AMCX’s market value.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 17.4 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $170 million. That figure was $222 million in AMCX’s case. Glu Mobile Inc. (NASDAQ:GLUU) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Brandywine Realty Trust (NYSE:BDN) is the least popular one with only 12 bullish hedge fund positions. AMC Networks Inc (NASDAQ:AMCX) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for AMCX is 47.6. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. Our calculations showed that top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 95.8% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 40 percentage points. These stocks gained 23.8% in 2021 through July 16th and beat the market again by 7.7 percentage points. Unfortunately AMCX wasn’t nearly as popular as these 5 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on AMCX were disappointed as the stock returned 3.5% since the end of March (through 7/16) and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds as many of these stocks already outperformed the market since 2019.

Suggested Articles:

• 10 Best Junior Gold Mining Stocks To Buy
• 15 Best Cities For Singles Over 40
• 10 Best Work-From-Home (WFH) Stocks to Buy Now

Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.