We at Insider Monkey have gone over 817 13F filings that hedge funds and prominent investors are required to file by the SEC The 13F filings show the funds’ and investors’ portfolio positions as of September 30th. In this article, we look at what those funds think of Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) based on that data.
Is EQH a good stock to buy? Hedge funds were getting less optimistic. The number of bullish hedge fund positions fell by 3 recently. Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) was in 36 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2020. The all time high for this statistic is 39. Our calculations also showed that EQH isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings and see the video for a quick look at the top 5 stocks).
Video: Watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.
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John Petry of Sessa Capital
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Do Hedge Funds Think EQH Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
At the end of the third quarter, a total of 36 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of -8% from one quarter earlier. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards EQH over the last 21 quarters. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were adding to their stakes considerably (or already accumulated large positions).
More specifically, Pzena Investment Management was the largest shareholder of Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH), with a stake worth $376.4 million reported as of the end of September. Trailing Pzena Investment Management was Citadel Investment Group, which amassed a stake valued at $202.1 million. Sessa Capital, Arrowstreet Capital, and AQR Capital Management were also very fond of the stock, becoming one of the largest hedge fund holders of the company. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Soapstone Capital allocated the biggest weight to Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH), around 8.73% of its 13F portfolio. Sessa Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, designating 7.71 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to EQH.
Since Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) has experienced bearish sentiment from hedge fund managers, it’s safe to say that there is a sect of hedge funds who were dropping their positions entirely in the third quarter. Intriguingly, Daniel Johnson’s Gillson Capital said goodbye to the largest stake of the “upper crust” of funds monitored by Insider Monkey, valued at close to $6.9 million in stock. Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s fund, Adage Capital Management, also said goodbye to its stock, about $6.8 million worth. These transactions are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 3 funds in the third quarter.
Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) but similarly valued. We will take a look at CyrusOne Inc (NASDAQ:CONE), Cna Financial Corporation (NYSE:CNA), Westlake Chemical Corporation (NYSE:WLK), Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc (NASDAQ:GLPI), Bill.com Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:BILL), BorgWarner Inc. (NYSE:BWA), and Snap-on Incorporated (NYSE:SNA). All of these stocks’ market caps are closest to EQH’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| CONE | 30 | 342024 | 5 |
| CNA | 17 | 59910 | 5 |
| WLK | 26 | 148658 | -3 |
| GLPI | 30 | 634369 | -5 |
| BILL | 44 | 1554533 | -8 |
| BWA | 30 | 797912 | -5 |
| SNA | 24 | 407096 | 4 |
| Average | 28.7 | 563500 | -1 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 28.7 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $564 million. That figure was $1019 million in EQH’s case. Bill.com Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:BILL) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Cna Financial Corporation (NYSE:CNA) is the least popular one with only 17 bullish hedge fund positions. Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EQH) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for EQH is 64.9. 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. Our calculations showed that top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 41.3% in 2019 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 10 percentage points. These stocks gained 33.3% in 2020 through December 18th and still beat the market by 16.4 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on EQH as the stock returned 38.9% since the end of Q3 (through 12/18) and outperformed the market. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.
Follow Equitable Holdings Inc. (NYSE:EQH)
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
