Is Index Investing Turning Into A Bubble? This Billion Dollar Hedge Fund Thinks So (And Has The Data To Prove It)

 Associated Capital Group Inc (NYSE:AC)

– Shares Held By Horizon Kinetics (as of September 30): 275,440

– Value of Holding (as of September 30): $9.77 Million

Although Horizon Kinetics owned only 275,440 shares of Associated Capital Group Inc (NYSE:AC) at the end of September, a recent regulatory filing by the firm shows that it owned 1.19 million class A shares or 19.4% of Associated Capital Group Inc (NYSE:AC)’s float as of December 31. Associated Capital Group was spun off from the parent company of Mario Gabelli‘s GAMCO Investors’ alternative investment management business and institutional research services operations in late-2015. Since then, its stock has appreciated by 31%. Associated Capital currently trades at a valuation of around $900 million, which is nearly a 10% discount to its net asset value of $1 billion.

The team at Horizon Kinetics thinks that as an asset manager with only $1.2 billion in AUM, Associated Capital Group can operate at a much larger scale if it manages to gather more assets. Moreover, because Associated Capital is a manager of alternative strategies, Horizon Kinetics is of the view that it will benefit from the ongoing trend among asset allocators to shift capital from conventional investments to alternative ones.