At Insider Monkey we follow around 730 of the best-performing investors and even though many of them lost money in the last several months, the history teaches us that over the long-run they still manage to beat the market, which is why it can be profitable for us to imitate their activity. Of course, even the best money managers can sometimes get it wrong, but following some of their picks gives us a better chance to outperform the crowd than picking a random stock and this is where our research comes in.
Is Bemis Company, Inc. (NYSE:BMS) a marvelous investment today? Hedge funds are taking an optimistic view. The number of long hedge fund bets advanced by 1 recently. At the end of this article we will also compare BMS to other stocks, including Donaldson Company, Inc. (NYSE:DCI), Arris Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARRS), and Starz (NASDAQ:STRZA) to get a better sense of its popularity.
Follow Bemis Co Inc (NYSE:BMS)
Follow Bemis Co Inc (NYSE:BMS)
According to most shareholders, hedge funds are seen as unimportant, outdated financial vehicles of years past. While there are greater than 8000 funds with their doors open at the moment, Our researchers look at the top tier of this club, around 700 funds. It is estimated that this group of investors preside over the lion’s share of all hedge funds’ total asset base, and by paying attention to their highest performing equity investments, Insider Monkey has uncovered several investment strategies that have historically outperformed Mr. Market. Insider Monkey’s small-cap hedge fund strategy defeated the S&P 500 index by 12 percentage points per year for a decade in their back tests.
Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a look at the new action encompassing Bemis Company, Inc. (NYSE:BMS).
How are hedge funds trading Bemis Company, Inc. (NYSE:BMS)?
At the end of the third quarter, a total of 25 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, inching up by 4% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).
When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group has the largest position in Bemis Company, Inc. (NYSE:BMS), worth close to $58.3 million, corresponding to 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is D E Shaw, managed by D. E. Shaw, which holds a $24.2 million position; less than 0.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining professional money managers with similar optimism contain Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.
As industrywide interest jumped, key money managers have jumped into Bemis Company, Inc. (NYSE:BMS) headfirst. Winton Capital Management, managed by David Harding, created the biggest position in Bemis Company, Inc. (NYSE:BMS). The fund reportedly had $11.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management also made a $0.7 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new BMS positions are George Hall’s Clinton Group and Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates.
Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Bemis Company, Inc. (NYSE:BMS) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Donaldson Company, Inc. (NYSE:DCI), Arris Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARRS), Starz (NASDAQ:STRZA), and Vail Resorts, Inc. (NYSE:MTN). This group of stocks’ market values are closest to BMS’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| DCI | 22 | 112975 | 7 |
| ARRS | 35 | 1187720 | -6 |
| STRZA | 29 | 724488 | 2 |
| MTN | 26 | 361720 | 3 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 28 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $597 million. That figure was a meager $199 million in BMS’s case. Arris Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARRS) is the most popular stock in this table, while Donaldson Company, Inc. (NYSE:DCI) is the laggard with only 22 bullish hedge fund positions. Bemis Company, Inc. (NYSE:BMS) 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. In this regard ARRS might be a better candidate to consider a long position.
