The worries about the election and the ongoing uncertainty about the path of interest-rate increases have been keeping investors on the sidelines. Of course, most hedge funds and other asset managers have been underperforming main stock market indices since the middle of 2015. Interestingly though, smaller-cap stocks registered their best performance relative to the large-capitalization stocks since the end of the June quarter, suggesting that this may be the best time to take a cue from their stock picks. In fact, the Russell 2000 Index gained more than 15% since the beginning of the third quarter, while the Standard and Poor’s 500 benchmark returned less than 6%. This article will lay out and discuss the hedge fund and institutional investor sentiment towards Liberty Braves Group (NASDAQ:BATRA).
Liberty Braves Group (NASDAQ:BATRA) was in 15 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2016. BATRA investors should pay attention to a decrease in hedge fund interest recently. There were 18 hedge funds in our database with BATRA positions at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of this article we will also compare BATRA to other stocks including BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI), DBV Technologies SA – ADR (NASDAQ:DBVT), and Cincinnati Bell Inc. (NYSE:CBB) to get a better sense of its popularity.
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How have hedgies been trading Liberty Braves Group (NASDAQ:BATRA)?
At Q3’s end, a total of 15 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a fall of -17% from one quarter earlier. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards BATRA over the last 5 quarters. So, let’s find out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Debra Fine’s Fine Capital Partners has the largest position in Liberty Braves Group (NASDAQ:BATRA), worth close to $15.2 million, comprising 1.6% of its total 13F portfolio. On Fine Capital Partners’ heels is Seth Klarman of Baupost Group, with a $14 million position. Some other hedge funds and institutional investors with similar optimism encompass Kenneth Mario Garschina’s Mason Capital Management, Michael Thompson’s BHR Capital and Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors. 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.
Because Liberty Braves Group (NASDAQ:BATRA) has encountered bearish sentiment from the smart money, it’s easy to see that there was a specific group of hedgies who sold off their entire stakes by the end of the third quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Malcolm Fairbairn’s Ascend Capital dumped the biggest stake of all the investors monitored by Insider Monkey, totaling about $6.8 million in stock. Nick Niell’s fund, Arrowgrass Capital Partners, also cut its stock, about $0.6 million worth.
Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Liberty Braves Group (NASDAQ:BATRA). We will take a look at BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI), DBV Technologies SA – ADR (NASDAQ:DBVT), Cincinnati Bell Inc. (NYSE:CBB), and Brookline Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:BRKL). This group of stocks’ market values are similar to BATRA’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| BJRI | 20 | 203212 | 0 |
| DBVT | 14 | 357439 | 4 |
| CBB | 14 | 79287 | 3 |
| BRKL | 11 | 35546 | -2 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 15 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $169 million. That figure was $62 million in BATRA’s case. BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Brookline Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:BRKL) is the least popular one with only 11 bullish hedge fund positions. Liberty Braves Group (NASDAQ:BATRA) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard BJRI might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.
Disclosure: None