Before we spend days researching a stock idea we’d like to take a look at how hedge funds and billionaire investors recently traded that stock. S&P 500 Index returned about 5.2% during the last 12 months ending October 30, 2015. Less than 49% of the stocks in the index outperformed the index. This means you (or a monkey throwing a dart) have less than an even chance of beating the market by randomly picking a stock. On the other hand, the top 30 S&P 500 stocks among hedge funds at the end of September 2014 had an average return of 9.5% during the same period. Sixty three percent of these 30 stocks outperformed the market. Hedge funds had bad stock picks like everyone else. Micron, which lost 50% over this period, was one of hedge funds’ 30 favorite S&P 500 stocks. Anadarko Petroleum was another failed stock pick which lost more than 26%. So, taking cues from hedge funds isn’t a foolproof strategy, but it seems to work on average. In this article, we will take a look at what hedge funds think about B2Gold Corp (NYSEMKT:BTG).
Hedge fund interest in B2Gold Corp shares was flat at the end of last quarter. This is usually a negative indicator. 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 Investors Real Estate Trust (NYSE:IRET), Fortress Transprtn and Infr Investrs LLC (NYSE:FTAI), and Diamond Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ:DMND) to gather more data points.
If you’d ask most stock holders, hedge funds are seen as underperforming, outdated financial vehicles of the past. While there are greater than 8000 funds in operation at the moment, Our researchers look at the elite of this club, about 700 funds. These investment experts direct most of the smart money’s total capital, and by following their inimitable equity investments, Insider Monkey has unsheathed various investment strategies that have historically outperformed the market. Insider Monkey’s small-cap hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 index by 12 percentage points annually for a decade in their back tests.
Now, let’s take a look at the recent action regarding B2Gold Corp (NYSEMKT:BTG).
Hedge fund activity in B2Gold Corp (NYSEMKT:BTG)
Heading into Q4, a total of 9 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, unchanged from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes significantly (or already accumulated large positions).
When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Eric Sprott’s Sprott Asset Management has the biggest position in B2Gold Corp (NYSEMKT:BTG), worth close to $2 million, comprising 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Visium Asset Management, managed by Jacob Gottlieb, which holds a $1.9 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedge funds and institutional investors that are bullish encompass D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.
