With the third-quarter round of 13F filings behind us it is time to take a look at the stocks in which some of the best money managers in the world preferred to invest or sell heading into the fourth quarter of 2021. One of these stocks was Coca-Cola European Partners plc (NYSE:CCEP).
Is CCEP a good stock to buy? Coca-Cola European Partners plc (NYSE:CCEP) has experienced an increase in enthusiasm from smart money in recent months. Coca-Cola European Partners plc (NYSE:CCEP) was in 32 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2021. The all time high for this statistic is 40. Our calculations also showed that CCEP isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings).
Larry Robbins of Glenview Capital
At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, lithium prices have more than doubled over the past year, so we go through lists like the 10 best EV stocks to pick the next Tesla that will deliver a 10x return. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. With all of this in mind let’s check out the key hedge fund action encompassing Coca-Cola European Partners plc (NYSE:CCEP).
Do Hedge Funds Think CCEP Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
At the end of September, a total of 32 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 3% from one quarter earlier. On the other hand, there were a total of 23 hedge funds with a bullish position in CCEP a year ago. So, let’s see which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Polaris Capital Management, managed by Bernard Horn, holds the biggest position in Coca-Cola European Partners plc (NYSE:CCEP). Polaris Capital Management has a $193.2 million position in the stock, comprising 6.2% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Hengistbury Investment Partners, led by Stuart Powers, holding a $133.7 million position; 19.8% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other members of the smart money with similar optimism comprise Jack Woodruff’s Candlestick Capital Management, Larry Robbins’s Glenview Capital and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Hengistbury Investment Partners allocated the biggest weight to Coca-Cola European Partners plc (NYSE:CCEP), around 19.77% of its 13F portfolio. Kehrs Ridge Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, dishing out 7.94 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to CCEP.
As industrywide interest jumped, key money managers have been driving this bullishness. Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, initiated the most outsized call position in Coca-Cola European Partners plc (NYSE:CCEP). Millennium Management had $15.6 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Peter Avellone’s Cartenna Capital also initiated a $14.1 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Alexander Mitchell’s Scopus Asset Management, Renaissance Technologies, and Greg Poole’s Echo Street Capital Management.
Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Coca-Cola European Partners plc (NYSE:CCEP) but similarly valued. We will take a look at PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (NYSE:TLK), Toast Inc. (NYSE:TOST), CDW Corporation (NASDAQ:CDW), Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR), Ryanair Holdings plc (NASDAQ:RYAAY), Franco-Nevada Corporation (NYSE:FNV), and AmerisourceBergen Corporation (NYSE:ABC). This group of stocks’ market caps match CCEP’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| TLK | 4 | 170252 | -1 |
| TOST | 38 | 567350 | 38 |
| CDW | 37 | 1906004 | 10 |
| AVTR | 53 | 2439815 | 9 |
| RYAAY | 15 | 411390 | 0 |
| FNV | 26 | 951083 | 3 |
| ABC | 44 | 1214780 | 1 |
| Average | 31 | 1094382 | 8.6 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 31 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1094 million. That figure was $1193 million in CCEP’s case. Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (NYSE:TLK) is the least popular one with only 4 bullish hedge fund positions. Coca-Cola European Partners plc (NYSE:CCEP) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for CCEP is 58.6. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. Our calculations showed that top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 95.8% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 40 percentage points. These stocks gained 28.6% in 2021 through November 30th and beat the market again by 5.6 percentage points. Unfortunately CCEP wasn’t nearly as popular as these 5 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on CCEP were disappointed as the stock returned -8% since the end of September (through 11/30) and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds as many of these stocks already outperformed the market since 2019.
Follow Coca-Cola European Partners Plc (NYSE:CCEP)
Follow Coca-Cola European Partners Plc (NYSE:CCEP)
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
