Hedge funds are not perfect. They have their bad picks just like everyone else. Facebook, a stock hedge funds have loved dearly, lost nearly 40% of its value at one point in 2018. Although hedge funds are not perfect, their consensus picks do deliver solid returns, however. Our data show the top 20 S&P 500 stocks among hedge funds beat the S&P 500 Index by more than 6 percentage points so far in 2019. Because hedge funds have a lot of resources and their consensus picks do well, we pay attention to what they think. In this article, we analyze what the elite funds think of Athene Holding Ltd. (NYSE:ATH).
Athene Holding Ltd. (NYSE:ATH) shareholders have witnessed a decrease in hedge fund interest lately. ATH was in 35 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of March. There were 43 hedge funds in our database with ATH holdings at the end of the previous quarter. Our calculations also showed that ATH isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.
At the moment there are a multitude of signals shareholders have at their disposal to size up stocks. Two of the most useful signals are hedge fund and insider trading indicators. Our experts have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best money managers can outperform the S&P 500 by a healthy amount (see the details here).
Matthew Hulsizer of PEAK6 Capital
Let’s view the key hedge fund action surrounding Athene Holding Ltd. (NYSE:ATH).
What does the smart money think about Athene Holding Ltd. (NYSE:ATH)?
At Q1’s end, a total of 35 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of -19% from the previous quarter. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards ATH over the last 15 quarters. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings substantially (or already accumulated large positions).
The largest stake in Athene Holding Ltd. (NYSE:ATH) was held by AQR Capital Management, which reported holding $191 million worth of stock at the end of March. It was followed by Samlyn Capital with a $179.5 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included Brahman Capital, GLG Partners, and GMT Capital.
Judging by the fact that Athene Holding Ltd. (NYSE:ATH) has experienced bearish sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, we can see that there were a few money managers that slashed their entire stakes heading into Q3. Intriguingly, John A. Levin’s Levin Capital Strategies sold off the largest position of the 700 funds watched by Insider Monkey, totaling an estimated $65.6 million in stock. Daniel Johnson’s fund, Gillson Capital, also cut its stock, about $10.7 million worth. These moves are important to note, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 8 funds heading into Q3.
Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Athene Holding Ltd. (NYSE:ATH) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:NBIX), MongoDB, Inc. (NASDAQ:MDB), BorgWarner Inc. (NYSE:BWA), and Post Holdings Inc (NYSE:POST). This group of stocks’ market values are closest to ATH’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| NBIX | 35 | 1105095 | -2 |
| MDB | 27 | 961692 | 4 |
| BWA | 21 | 667423 | -1 |
| POST | 27 | 1333879 | -1 |
| Average | 27.5 | 1017022 | 0 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 27.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1017 million. That figure was $1311 million in ATH’s case. Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:NBIX) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand BorgWarner Inc. (NYSE:BWA) is the least popular one with only 21 bullish hedge fund positions. Athene Holding Ltd. (NYSE:ATH) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our calculations showed that top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 1.9% in Q2 through May 30th and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by more than 3 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on ATH as the stock returned 2.7% during the same period and outperformed the market by an even larger margin. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
