The Insider Monkey team has completed processing the quarterly 13F filings for the December quarter submitted by the hedge funds and other money managers included in our extensive database. Most hedge fund investors endured a torrid quarter, which certainly propelled them to adjust their equity holdings so as to maintain the desired risk profile. As a result, the relevancy of these public filings and their content is indisputable, as they may reveal numerous high-potential stocks. The following article will discuss the smart money sentiment towards Blackstone Mortgage Trust Inc (NYSE:BXMT).
Is Blackstone Mortgage Trust Inc (NYSE:BXMT) the right pick for your portfolio? The best stock pickers are buying. The number of long hedge fund bets moved up by 2 recently. Our calculations also showed that BXMT isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds. BXMT was in 16 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the fourth quarter of 2018. There were 14 hedge funds in our database with BXMT positions at the end of the previous quarter.
Hedge funds’ reputation as shrewd investors has been tarnished in the last decade as their hedged returns couldn’t keep up with the unhedged returns of the market indices. Our research has shown that hedge funds’ large-cap stock picks indeed failed to beat the market between 1999 and 2016. However, we were able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that outperformed the market by 32 percentage points since May 2014 through March 12, 2019 (see the details here). We were also able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that’ll significantly underperform the market. We have been tracking and sharing the list of these stocks since February 2017 and they lost 27.5% through March 12, 2019. That’s why we believe hedge fund sentiment is an extremely useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.
Let’s take a gander at the key hedge fund action encompassing Blackstone Mortgage Trust Inc (NYSE:BXMT).
How are hedge funds trading Blackstone Mortgage Trust Inc (NYSE:BXMT)?
At the end of the fourth quarter, a total of 16 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 14% from one quarter earlier. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards BXMT over the last 14 quarters. So, let’s see which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
Among these funds, Egerton Capital Limited held the most valuable stake in Blackstone Mortgage Trust Inc (NYSE:BXMT), which was worth $40.8 million at the end of the third quarter. On the second spot was Clough Capital Partners which amassed $29.3 million worth of shares. Moreover, Renaissance Technologies, Millennium Management, and Citadel Investment Group were also bullish on Blackstone Mortgage Trust Inc (NYSE:BXMT), allocating a large percentage of their portfolios to this stock.
With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key money managers were breaking ground themselves. Whitebox Advisors, managed by Andy Redleaf, initiated the most outsized position in Blackstone Mortgage Trust Inc (NYSE:BXMT). Whitebox Advisors had $12.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp also made a $2.7 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new BXMT investors: D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management, and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.
Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Blackstone Mortgage Trust Inc (NYSE:BXMT). These stocks are BlackBerry Limited (NYSE:BB), Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBRL), Integra Lifesciences Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:IART), and Gates Industrial Corporation plc (NYSE:GTES). This group of stocks’ market values match BXMT’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| BB | 23 | 581395 | 5 |
| CBRL | 19 | 196110 | 7 |
| IART | 18 | 129212 | 4 |
| GTES | 8 | 8961 | -1 |
| Average | 17 | 228920 | 3.75 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 17 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $229 million. That figure was $129 million in BXMT’s case. BlackBerry Limited (NYSE:BB) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Gates Industrial Corporation plc (NYSE:GTES) is the least popular one with only 8 bullish hedge fund positions. Blackstone Mortgage Trust Inc (NYSE:BXMT) 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. Our calculations showed that top 15 most popular stocks) among hedge funds returned 24.2% through April 22nd and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by more than 7 percentage points. Unfortunately BXMT wasn’t nearly as popular as these 15 stock (hedge fund sentiment was quite bearish); BXMT investors were disappointed as the stock returned 10.7% and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 15 most popular stocks) among hedge funds as 13 of these stocks already outperformed the market this year.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
