After several tireless days we have finished crunching the numbers from nearly 750 13F filings issued by the elite hedge funds and other investment firms that we track at Insider Monkey, which disclosed those firms’ equity portfolios as of September 30th. The results of that effort will be put on display in this article, as we share valuable insight into the smart money sentiment towards John Bean Technologies Corporation (NYSE:JBT).
John Bean Technologies Corporation (NYSE:JBT) shareholders have witnessed an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds recently. Our calculations also showed that JBT 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.
Why do we pay any attention at all to hedge fund sentiment? Our research has shown that hedge funds’ large-cap stock picks indeed failed to beat the market between 1999 and 2016. However, we were able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that outperformed the Russell 2000 ETFs by 40 percentage points since May 2014 (see the details here). We were also able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that’ll significantly underperform the market. We have been tracking and sharing the list of these stocks since February 2017 and they lost 27.8% through November 21, 2019. That’s why we believe hedge fund sentiment is an extremely useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.
Chuck Royce of Royce & Associates
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 take a glance at the new hedge fund action regarding John Bean Technologies Corporation (NYSE:JBT).
How have hedgies been trading John Bean Technologies Corporation (NYSE:JBT)?
Heading into the fourth quarter of 2019, a total of 14 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 40% from the second quarter of 2019. On the other hand, there were a total of 13 hedge funds with a bullish position in JBT a year ago. So, let’s see which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
Among these funds, Royce & Associates held the most valuable stake in John Bean Technologies Corporation (NYSE:JBT), which was worth $73.2 million at the end of the third quarter. On the second spot was Citadel Investment Group which amassed $9.4 million worth of shares. D E Shaw, GLG Partners, and Balyasny Asset 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 Royce & Associates allocated the biggest weight to John Bean Technologies Corporation (NYSE:JBT), around 0.68% of its 13F portfolio. PDT Partners is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 0.13 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to JBT.
Now, key hedge funds were breaking ground themselves. GLG Partners, managed by Noam Gottesman, initiated the most outsized position in John Bean Technologies Corporation (NYSE:JBT). GLG Partners had $3.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace also initiated a $2.5 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new JBT investors: Peter Muller’s PDT Partners, Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, and Brad Dunkley and Blair Levinsky’s Waratah Capital Advisors.
Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to John Bean Technologies Corporation (NYSE:JBT). We will take a look at Darling Ingredients Inc. (NYSE:DAR), Investors Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISBC), Paramount Group Inc (NYSE:PGRE), and Cantel Medical Corp. (NYSE:CMD). All of these stocks’ market caps are similar to JBT’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| DAR | 24 | 226792 | 8 |
| ISBC | 26 | 585162 | 3 |
| PGRE | 18 | 293248 | 5 |
| CMD | 11 | 149052 | 0 |
| Average | 19.75 | 313564 | 4 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 19.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $314 million. That figure was $102 million in JBT’s case. Investors Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISBC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Cantel Medical Corp. (NYSE:CMD) is the least popular one with only 11 bullish hedge fund positions. John Bean Technologies Corporation (NYSE:JBT) 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 JBT, though not to the same extent, as the stock returned 10.2% during the first two months of the fourth quarter and outperformed the market.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
