The latest 13F reporting period has come and gone, and Insider Monkey is again at the forefront when it comes to making use of this gold mine of data. We at Insider Monkey have plowed through 821 13F filings that hedge funds and well-known value investors are required to file by the SEC. The 13F filings show the funds’ and investors’ portfolio positions as of March 31st, a week after the market trough. In this article we look at what those investors think of Global Partners LP (NYSE:GLP).
Is Global Partners LP (NYSE:GLP) a buy right now? The smart money is getting less bullish. The number of long hedge fund positions dropped by 1 lately. Our calculations also showed that GLP isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 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.
In the 21st century investor’s toolkit there are a lot of gauges shareholders employ to analyze their holdings. Some of the most underrated gauges are hedge fund and insider trading interest. Our experts have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best money managers can beat their index-focused peers by a healthy margin (see the details here).
Paul Marshall of Marshall Wace
At Insider Monkey we leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, legendary investor Bill Miller told investors to sell 7 extremely popular recession stocks last month. So, we went through his list and recommended another stock with 100% upside potential instead. We interview hedge fund managers and ask them about their best ideas. You can watch our latest hedge fund manager interview here and find out the name of the large-cap healthcare stock that Sio Capital’s Michael Castor expects to double. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. Our best call in 2020 was shorting the market when S&P 500 was trading at 3150 after realizing the coronavirus pandemic’s significance before most investors. Now let’s review the recent hedge fund action encompassing Global Partners LP (NYSE:GLP).
How are hedge funds trading Global Partners LP (NYSE:GLP)?
Heading into the second quarter of 2020, a total of 3 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of -25% from the fourth quarter of 2019. By comparison, 5 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in GLP a year ago. So, let’s find out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
More specifically, Arrowstreet Capital was the largest shareholder of Global Partners LP (NYSE:GLP), with a stake worth $3.6 million reported as of the end of September. Trailing Arrowstreet Capital was Citadel Investment Group, which amassed a stake valued at $0.2 million. PEAK6 Capital Management was 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 Arrowstreet Capital allocated the biggest weight to Global Partners LP (NYSE:GLP), around 0.01% of its 13F portfolio. PEAK6 Capital Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, dishing out 0.0005 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to GLP.
We view hedge fund activity in the stock unfavorable, but in this case there was only a single hedge fund selling its entire position: Marshall Wace LLP. One hedge fund selling its entire position doesn’t always imply a bearish intent. Theoretically a hedge fund may decide to sell a promising position in order to invest the proceeds in a more promising idea. However, we don’t think this is the case in this case because none of the 750+ hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey identified GLP as a viable investment and initiated a position in the stock.
Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Global Partners LP (NYSE:GLP) but similarly valued. These stocks are Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CCO), Crossamerica Partners LP (NYSE:CAPL), NI Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:NODK), and The Manitowoc Company, Inc. (NYSE:MTW). This group of stocks’ market caps are closest to GLP’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| CCO | 33 | 83014 | -9 |
| CAPL | 1 | 283 | 0 |
| NODK | 6 | 21289 | -1 |
| MTW | 21 | 43912 | 4 |
| Average | 15.25 | 37125 | -1.5 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 15.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $37 million. That figure was $4 million in GLP’s case. Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CCO) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Crossamerica Partners LP (NYSE:CAPL) is the least popular one with only 1 bullish hedge fund positions. Global Partners LP (NYSE:GLP) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our calculations showed that top 10 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 41.4% in 2019 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 10.1 percentage points. These stocks gained 7.9% in 2020 through May 22nd but beat the market by 15.6 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on GLP, though not to the same extent, as the stock returned 19.1% during the second quarter and outperformed the market.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
