A whopping number of 13F filings filed with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has been processed by Insider Monkey so that individual investors can look at the overall hedge fund sentiment towards the stocks included in their watchlists. These freshly-submitted public filings disclose money managers’ equity positions as of the end of the three-month period that ended December 31st, so let’s proceed with the discussion of the hedge fund sentiment on The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS).
Is MOS stock a buy or sell? The smart money was becoming more confident. The number of long hedge fund bets increased by 8 lately. The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS) was in 39 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of December. The all time high for this statistic is 39. This means the bullish number of hedge fund positions in this stock currently sits at its all time high. Our calculations also showed that MOS isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q4 rankings).
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Do Hedge Funds Think MOS Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
Heading into the first quarter of 2021, a total of 39 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 26% from the previous quarter. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards MOS over the last 22 quarters. So, let’s review which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
More specifically, Slate Path Capital was the largest shareholder of The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS), with a stake worth $159.7 million reported as of the end of December. Trailing Slate Path Capital was Adage Capital Management, which amassed a stake valued at $139.4 million. Arrowstreet Capital, D E Shaw, and Citadel Investment Group 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 Slate Path Capital allocated the biggest weight to The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS), around 8.64% of its 13F portfolio. East Side Capital (RR Partners) is also relatively very bullish on the stock, dishing out 4.41 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to MOS.
As one would reasonably expect, key hedge funds were breaking ground themselves. Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, created the most outsized position in The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS). Royce & Associates had $19.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Ken Heebner’s Capital Growth Management also initiated a $8.1 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management, Noam Gottesman’s GLG Partners, and Sander Gerber’s Hudson Bay Capital Management.
Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Aluminum Corp. of China Limited (NYSE:ACH), The New York Times Company (NYSE:NYT), Tapestry, Inc. (NYSE:TPR), Globant SA (NYSE:GLOB), Alleghany Corporation (NYSE:Y), Dada Nexus Limited (NASDAQ:DADA), and AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC). This group of stocks’ market caps are closest to MOS’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| ACH | 4 | 7199 | 0 |
| NYT | 50 | 2749728 | 5 |
| TPR | 49 | 1295430 | 10 |
| GLOB | 15 | 279923 | -6 |
| Y | 34 | 364699 | 5 |
| DADA | 25 | 168093 | 8 |
| AGNC | 25 | 353105 | -7 |
| Average | 28.9 | 745454 | 2.1 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 28.9 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $745 million. That figure was $841 million in MOS’s case. The New York Times Company (NYSE:NYT) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Aluminum Corp. of China Limited (NYSE:ACH) is the least popular one with only 4 bullish hedge fund positions. The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for MOS is 78. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. Our calculations showed that top 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 81.2% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 26 percentage points. These stocks gained 5.3% in 2021 through March 19th and still beat the market by 0.8 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on MOS as the stock returned 45% since the end of Q4 (through 3/19) and outperformed the market. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
