Hedge funds and large money managers usually invest with a focus on the long-term horizon and, therefore, short-lived dips on the charts, usually don’t make them change their opinion towards a company. The second half of 2015 and the first few months of this year was a stressful period for hedge funds. However, things have been taking a turn for the better in the second half of this year. Small-cap stocks which hedge funds are usually overweight outperformed the market by double digits and it may be a good time to pay attention to hedge funds’ picks before it is too late. In this article we are going to analyze the hedge fund sentiment towards Liberty Sirius XM Group (NASDAQ:LSXMK) .
Liberty Sirius XM Group (NASDAQ:LSXMK) has experienced an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds in recent months. There were 31 hedge funds in our database with LSXMK positions at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of this article we will also compare LSXMK to other stocks including Liberty Sirius XM Group (NASDAQ:LSXMA), NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ), and Cemex SAB de CV (ADR) (NYSE:CX) to get a better sense of its popularity.
We care about hedge fund sentiment because historically hedge funds’ stock picks delivered strong risk adjusted returns. There are certain segments of the market where hedge funds’ stock picks performed much better than its benchmarks. For instance, the 30 most popular mid-cap stocks among the best performing hedge funds returned 18% over the last 12 months outpacing S&P 500 Index by more than 10 percentage points. We developed this strategy 2.5 years ago and started sharing its picks in our quarterly newsletter. It bested the S&P 500 Index ETFs by delivering a solid 39% vs. 22% gain for its benchmarks.
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Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a look at the new action surrounding Liberty Sirius XM Group (NASDAQ:LSXMK).
How are hedge funds trading Liberty Sirius XM Group (NASDAQ:LSXMK)?
At Q3’s end, a total of 35 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 13% from the previous quarter. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards LSXMK 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.
Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has the most valuable position in Liberty Sirius XM Group (NASDAQ:LSXMK), worth close to $742.9 million, accounting for 0.6% of its total 13F portfolio. On Berkshire Hathaway’s heels is FPR Partners, led by Bob Peck and Andy Raab, holding a $277.1 million position; 6.2% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other peers that hold long positions contain Michael Lowenstein’s Kensico Capital, D E Shaw and Murray Stahl’s Horizon Asset Management. 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.
Consequently, key hedge funds have been driving this bullishness. Ascend Capital, led by Malcolm Fairbairn, assembled the most outsized position in Liberty Sirius XM Group (NASDAQ:LSXMK). Ascend Capital had $17 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Tim Mullen’s Swift Run Capital Management also made a $7 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new LSXMK positions are Ian Cumming and Joseph Steinberg’s Leucadia National, Andrew Feldstein and Stephen Siderow’s Blue Mountain Capital, and John A. Levin’s Levin Capital Strategies.
Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Liberty Sirius XM Group (NASDAQ:LSXMK) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Liberty Sirius XM Group (NASDAQ:LSXMA), NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ), Cemex SAB de CV (ADR) (NYSE:CX), and Mettler-Toledo International Inc. (NYSE:MTD). All of these stocks’ market caps are similar to LSXMK’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| LSXMA | 30 | 998577 | 2 |
| NDAQ | 29 | 402276 | 2 |
| CX | 24 | 532753 | 5 |
| MTD | 21 | 484521 | 1 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 26 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $605 million. That figure was $2302 million in LSXMK’s case. Liberty Sirius XM Group (NASDAQ:LSXMA) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Mettler-Toledo International Inc. (NYSE:MTD) is the least popular one with only 21 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Liberty Sirius XM Group (NASDAQ:LSXMK) is more popular among hedge funds. Considering that hedge funds are fond of this stock in relation to its market cap peers, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and potentially include it in your portfolio.