Hedge Funds and other institutional investors have just completed filing their 13Fs with the Securities and Exchange Commission, revealing their equity portfolios as of the end of September. At Insider Monkey, we follow nearly 900 active hedge funds and notable investors and by analyzing their 13F filings, we can determine the stocks that they are collectively bullish on. One of their picks is GreenBox POS (NASDAQ:GBOX), so let’s take a closer look at the sentiment that surrounds it in the current quarter.
Is GBOX a good stock to buy? Hedge funds were in a bullish mood. The number of long hedge fund positions increased by 4 recently. GreenBox POS (NASDAQ:GBOX) was in 4 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the first quarter of 2021. Our calculations also showed that GBOX isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings).
Why do we pay any attention at all to hedge fund sentiment? Our research has shown that a select group of hedge fund holdings outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by 115 percentage points since March 2017 (see the details here). That’s why we believe hedge fund sentiment is an extremely useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.
Ken Griffin of Citadel Investment Group
At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, an activist hedge fund wants to buy this $28 biotech stock for $50. So, we recommended a long position to our monthly premium newsletter subscribers. We go through lists like the 10 best battery 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. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. You can subscribe to our free daily newsletter on our homepage. Now let’s take a gander at the key hedge fund action encompassing GreenBox POS (NASDAQ:GBOX).
Do Hedge Funds Think GBOX Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
At the end of the first quarter, a total of 4 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 4 from one quarter earlier. By comparison, 0 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in GBOX a year ago. So, let’s examine which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, P.A.W. CAPITAL PARTNERS, managed by Peter A. Wright, holds the largest position in GreenBox POS (NASDAQ:GBOX). P.A.W. CAPITAL PARTNERS has a $2.1 million position in the stock, comprising 1.8% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Serengeti Asset Management, managed by Jody LaNasa, which holds a $0.7 million position; 0.3% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining peers that are bullish contain Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and . In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position P.A.W. CAPITAL PARTNERS allocated the biggest weight to GreenBox POS (NASDAQ:GBOX), around 1.85% of its 13F portfolio. Serengeti Asset Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 0.31 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to GBOX.
As one would reasonably expect, specific money managers have been driving this bullishness. P.A.W. CAPITAL PARTNERS, managed by Peter A. Wright, initiated the biggest position in GreenBox POS (NASDAQ:GBOX). P.A.W. CAPITAL PARTNERS had $2.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Jody LaNasa’s Serengeti Asset Management also initiated a $0.7 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new GBOX positions are Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.
Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to GreenBox POS (NASDAQ:GBOX). We will take a look at Qudian Inc. (NYSE:QD), Retractable Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:RVP), UroGen Pharma Ltd. (NASDAQ:URGN), Astronics Corporation (NASDAQ:ATRO), Spero Therapeutics (NASDAQ:SPRO), China Online Education Group (NYSE:COE), and Verona Pharma plc (NASDAQ:VRNA). This group of stocks’ market valuations match GBOX’s market valuation.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| QD | 8 | 25395 | 2 |
| RVP | 7 | 11291 | -3 |
| URGN | 6 | 18960 | 0 |
| ATRO | 17 | 84393 | -4 |
| SPRO | 7 | 103628 | -2 |
| COE | 3 | 13897 | -1 |
| VRNA | 12 | 182300 | 0 |
| Average | 8.6 | 62838 | -1.1 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 8.6 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $63 million. That figure was $3 million in GBOX’s case. Astronics Corporation (NASDAQ:ATRO) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand China Online Education Group (NYSE:COE) is the least popular one with only 3 bullish hedge fund positions. GreenBox POS (NASDAQ:GBOX) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for GBOX is 14.7. 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 negative signal and 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 17.2% in 2021 through June 11th and surpassed the market again by 3.3 percentage points. Unfortunately GBOX wasn’t nearly as popular as these 5 stocks (hedge fund sentiment was quite bearish); GBOX investors were disappointed as the stock returned 1.1% since the end of March (through 6/11) 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 most of these stocks already outperformed the market in 2021.
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.