The Insider Monkey team has completed processing the quarterly 13F filings for the September quarter submitted by the hedge funds and other money managers included in our extensive database. Most hedge funds have been producing disappointing net returns in recent years, however that was partly due to the poor performance of small-cap stocks in general. Well, small-cap stocks finally turned the corner and have been beating the large-cap stocks by more than 10 percentage points over the last 5 months.This means the relevancy of hedge funds’ public filings became inarguable, as they may reveal numerous high-potential stocks. The following article will discuss the smart money sentiment towards Just Energy Group Inc (NYSE:JE).
Is Just Energy Group Inc (NYSE:JE) a buy right now? The best stock pickers are really taking a bearish view. The number of long hedge fund investments shrunk by 2 recently. The level and the change in hedge fund popularity aren’t the only variables you need to analyze to decipher hedge funds’ perspectives. A stock may witness a boost in popularity but it may still be less popular than similarly priced stocks. That’s why at the end of this article we will examine companies such as Viad Corp (NYSE:VVI), National Western Life Insurance Company (NASDAQ:NWLI), and Tobira Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:TBRA) to gather more data points.
At Insider Monkey, we’ve developed an investment strategy that has delivered market-beating returns over the past 12 months. Our strategy identifies the 100 best-performing funds of the previous quarter from among the collection of 700+ successful funds that we track in our database, which we accomplish using our returns methodology. We then study the portfolios of those 100 funds using the latest 13F data to uncover the 30 most popular mid-cap stocks (market caps of between $1 billion and $10 billion) among them to hold until the next filing period. This strategy delivered 18% gains over the past 12 months, more than doubling the 8% returns enjoyed by the S&P 500 ETFs.
Sergey Nivens/shutterstock.com
Hedge fund activity in Just Energy Group Inc (NYSE:JE)
At Q3’s end, a total of 9 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, an 18% dip from one quarter earlier. On the other hand, there were a total of 11 hedge funds with a bullish position in JE at the beginning of this year, with hedge fund ownership having been volatile since then. So, let’s check out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Renaissance Technologies, one of the largest hedge funds in the world, holds the biggest position in Just Energy Group Inc (NYSE:JE). Renaissance Technologies has a $10.5 million position in the stock. On Renaissance Technologies’ heels is Robert B. Gillam’s McKinley Capital Management, which holds a $2.1 million position. Some other professional money managers that are bullish comprise Cliff Asness’ AQR Capital Management, John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors, and Peter Muller’s PDT Partners. We should note that none of these hedge funds are among our list of the 100 best performing hedge funds which is based on the performance of their 13F long positions in non-microcap stocks.
Judging by the fact that Just Energy Group Inc (NYSE:JE) has faced bearish sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, logic holds that there lies a certain “tier” of money managers that elected to cut their entire stakes last quarter. Interestingly, Michael Platt and William Reeves’ BlueCrest Capital Mgmt. got rid of the largest stake of all the hedgies watched by Insider Monkey, valued at about $0.1 million in stock. Gavin Saitowitz and Cisco J. del Valle’s fund, Springbok Capital, also cut its small position in the stock.
Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Just Energy Group Inc (NYSE:JE). These stocks are Viad Corp (NYSE:VVI), National Western Life Insurance Company (NASDAQ:NWLI), Tobira Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:TBRA), and Workiva Inc (NYSE:WK). This group of stocks’ market valuations are closest to JE’s market valuation.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| VVI | 14 | 128142 | -1 |
| NWLI | 7 | 13390 | 0 |
| TBRA | 15 | 373476 | 8 |
| WK | 7 | 55695 | 3 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 11 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $143 million. That figure was $16 million in JE’s case. Tobira Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:TBRA) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand National Western Life Insurance Company (NASDAQ:NWLI) is the least popular one with only 7 bullish hedge fund positions. Just Energy Group Inc (NYSE:JE) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard TBRA might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.
Disclosure: None
