Is Gold Fields Limited (NYSE:GFI) a good place to invest some of your money right now? We can gain invaluable insight to help us answer that question by studying the investment trends of top investors, who employ world-class Ivy League graduates, who are given immense resources and industry contacts to put their financial expertise to work. The top picks of these firms have historically outperformed the market when we account for known risk factors, making them very valuable investment ideas.
Gold Fields Limited (NYSE:GFI) investors should pay attention to an increase in support from the world’s most elite money managers recently. Our calculations also showed that GFI isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings and see the video below for Q2 rankings).
Video: Click the image to watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.
In the eyes of most stock holders, hedge funds are assumed to be unimportant, outdated investment tools of the past. While there are more than 8000 funds in operation today, Our researchers look at the bigwigs of this club, around 750 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group of people command bulk of all hedge funds’ total capital, and by observing their inimitable stock picks, Insider Monkey has come up with numerous investment strategies that have historically outpaced the broader indices. Insider Monkey’s flagship short hedge fund strategy surpassed the S&P 500 short ETFs by around 20 percentage points annually since its inception in May 2014. Our portfolio of short stocks lost 27.8% since February 2017 (through November 21st) even though the market was up more than 39% during the same period. We just shared a list of 7 short targets in our latest quarterly update .
Richard Driehaus of Driehaus Capital
We leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example Europe is set to become the world’s largest cannabis market, so we check out this European marijuana stock pitch. One of the most bullish analysts in America just put his money where his mouth is. He says, “I’m investing more today than I did back in early 2009.” So we check out his pitch. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. We also rely on the best performing hedge funds‘ buy/sell signals. We’re going to check out the recent hedge fund action surrounding Gold Fields Limited (NYSE:GFI).
How are hedge funds trading Gold Fields Limited (NYSE:GFI)?
At the end of the third quarter, a total of 17 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 21% from the previous quarter. On the other hand, there were a total of 10 hedge funds with a bullish position in GFI 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, Renaissance Technologies was the largest shareholder of Gold Fields Limited (NYSE:GFI), with a stake worth $114.3 million reported as of the end of September. Trailing Renaissance Technologies was Millennium Management, which amassed a stake valued at $59.8 million. Anchor Bolt Capital, Arrowstreet Capital, and Sun Valley Gold 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 Anchor Bolt Capital allocated the biggest weight to Gold Fields Limited (NYSE:GFI), around 5.77% of its 13F portfolio. Sun Valley Gold is also relatively very bullish on the stock, designating 4.28 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to GFI.
With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, specific money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Sun Valley Gold, managed by Peter Franklin Palmedo, initiated the most valuable position in Gold Fields Limited (NYSE:GFI). Sun Valley Gold had $15.6 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Richard Driehaus’s Driehaus Capital also initiated a $3.8 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new GFI investors: Eric Sprott’s Sprott Asset Management, Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management, and Michael Platt and William Reeves’s BlueCrest Capital Mgmt..
Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Gold Fields Limited (NYSE:GFI). We will take a look at Azul S.A. (NYSE:AZUL), New Jersey Resources Corp (NYSE:NJR), Insperity Inc (NYSE:NSP), and National Fuel Gas Company (NYSE:NFG). This group of stocks’ market caps are closest to GFI’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| AZUL | 12 | 134406 | -1 |
| NJR | 14 | 82886 | 2 |
| NSP | 24 | 342641 | 0 |
| NFG | 20 | 211706 | -2 |
| Average | 17.5 | 192910 | -0.25 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 17.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $193 million. That figure was $283 million in GFI’s case. Insperity Inc (NYSE:NSP) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Azul S.A. (NYSE:AZUL) is the least popular one with only 12 bullish hedge fund positions. Gold Fields Limited (NYSE:GFI) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our calculations showed that top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 37.4% in 2019 through the end of November and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 9.9 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on GFI, though not to the same extent, as the stock returned 8.7% during the first two months of the fourth quarter and outperformed the market.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
