We at Insider Monkey have gone over 700 13F filings that hedge funds and prominent investors are required to file by the government. The 13F filings show the funds’ and investors’ portfolio positions as of September 30. In this article we look at what those investors think of Belmond Ltd (NYSE:BEL).
Is Belmond Ltd (NYSE:BEL) a bargain? The smart money is in a bearish mood. The number of long hedge fund positions was cut by 1 in recent months. BEL was in 19 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2015. There were 20 hedge funds in our database with BEL holdings at the end of the previous 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 Fiesta Restaurant Group Inc (NASDAQ:FRGI), SAGE Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:SAGE), and Itron, Inc. (NASDAQ:ITRI) to gather more data points.
In the eyes of most market participants, hedge funds are assumed to be slow, outdated financial vehicles of the past. While there are greater than 8000 funds with their doors open at the moment, Our researchers choose to focus on the bigwigs of this group, about 700 funds. It is estimated that this group of investors watch over bulk of the smart money’s total asset base, and by following their unrivaled picks, Insider Monkey has uncovered several investment strategies that have historically defeated the market. Insider Monkey’s small-cap hedge fund strategy exceeded the S&P 500 index by 12 percentage points a year for a decade in their back tests.
Now, let’s review the key action regarding Belmond Ltd (NYSE:BEL).
How are hedge funds trading Belmond Ltd (NYSE:BEL)?
At Q3’s end, a total of 19 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of -5% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings considerably (or already accumulated large positions).
Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Jeffrey Bronchick’s Cove Street Capital has the most valuable position in Belmond Ltd (NYSE:BEL), worth close to $29.4 million, accounting for 3.9% of its total 13F portfolio. The second most bullish fund manager is Chuck Royce of Royce & Associates, with an $18.8 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other professional money managers that are bullish contain James Dinan’s York Capital Management, Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors and Robert Joseph Caruso’s Select Equity Group.
Because Belmond Ltd (NYSE:BEL) has experienced a decline in interest from hedge fund managers, we can see that there were a few funds who were dropping their positions entirely in the third quarter. Intriguingly, Ward Davis and Brian Agnew’s Caerus Global Investors dropped the largest position of the 700 funds monitored by Insider Monkey, comprising about $3.3 million in stock. Charles Clough’s fund, Clough Capital Partners, also said goodbye to its holding, about $3.2 million worth.
Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Belmond Ltd (NYSE:BEL). We will take a look at Fiesta Restaurant Group Inc (NASDAQ:FRGI), SAGE Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:SAGE), Itron, Inc. (NASDAQ:ITRI), and ExlService Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXLS). All of these stocks’ market caps resemble BEL’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| FRGI | 18 | 40791 | 1 |
| SAGE | 17 | 744209 | -4 |
| ITRI | 16 | 200409 | 0 |
| EXLS | 13 | 76313 | -2 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 16 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $265 million, versus $79 million in BEL’s case. Fiesta Restaurant Group Inc (NASDAQ:FRGI) is the most popular stock in this table with 18 funds reporting stakes, while ExlService Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXLS) is the least popular one with only 13 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Belmond Ltd (NYSE: BEL) is slightly more popular among hedge funds. Considering that hedge funds are fond of this stock in relation to its market cap peers, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and potentially include it in your portfolio.
