With the first-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 second quarter. One of these stocks was GreenSky, Inc. (NASDAQ:GSKY).
GreenSky, Inc. (NASDAQ:GSKY) was in 15 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. GSKY has seen a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money recently. There were 20 hedge funds in our database with GSKY positions at the end of the previous quarter. Our calculations also showed that GSKY 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 financial world there are many tools market participants have at their disposal to size up their stock investments. A duo of the less known tools are hedge fund and insider trading activity. Our researchers have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best fund managers can outpace the broader indices by a very impressive margin (see the details here).
David E. Shaw of D.E. Shaw
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. Let’s take a look at the key hedge fund action encompassing GreenSky, Inc. (NASDAQ:GSKY).
What have hedge funds been doing with GreenSky, Inc. (NASDAQ:GSKY)?
Heading into the fourth quarter of 2019, a total of 15 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of -25% from one quarter earlier. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards GSKY over the last 17 quarters. So, let’s review which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
More specifically, Isomer Partners was the largest shareholder of GreenSky, Inc. (NASDAQ:GSKY), with a stake worth $12 million reported as of the end of September. Trailing Isomer Partners was D E Shaw, which amassed a stake valued at $7.7 million. Bloom Tree Partners, PAR Capital Management, and Adage 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 Isomer Partners allocated the biggest weight to GreenSky, Inc. (NASDAQ:GSKY), around 3.87% of its 13F portfolio. Kayak Investment Partners is also relatively very bullish on the stock, dishing out 2.54 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to GSKY.
Judging by the fact that GreenSky, Inc. (NASDAQ:GSKY) has faced declining sentiment from the smart money, it’s safe to say that there is a sect of funds that elected to cut their positions entirely last quarter. Interestingly, Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management said goodbye to the biggest position of the 750 funds followed by Insider Monkey, valued at about $10.1 million in stock. Michael Burry’s fund, Scion Asset Management, also dumped its stock, about $7.4 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 5 funds last quarter.
Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as GreenSky, Inc. (NASDAQ:GSKY) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Winnebago Industries, Inc. (NYSE:WGO), B&G Foods, Inc. (NYSE:BGS), Sandy Spring Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:SASR), and Sleep Number Corporation (NASDAQ:SNBR). All of these stocks’ market caps resemble GSKY’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| WGO | 15 | 126735 | 2 |
| BGS | 16 | 134329 | -4 |
| SASR | 16 | 86930 | 1 |
| SNBR | 16 | 164083 | 0 |
| Average | 15.75 | 128019 | -0.25 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 15.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $128 million. That figure was $55 million in GSKY’s case. B&G Foods, Inc. (NYSE:BGS) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Winnebago Industries, Inc. (NYSE:WGO) is the least popular one with only 15 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks GreenSky, Inc. (NASDAQ:GSKY) is even less popular than WGO. 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 GSKY, though not to the same extent, as the stock returned 8.7% during the fourth quarter (through 11/30) and outperformed the market as well.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
