There are several ways to beat the market, and investing in small cap stocks has historically been one of them. We like to improve the odds of beating the market further by examining what famous hedge fund operators such as Carl Icahn and George Soros think. Those hedge fund operators make billions of dollars each year by hiring the best and the brightest to do research on stocks, including small cap stocks that big brokerage houses simply don’t cover. Because of Carl Icahn and other elite funds’ exemplary historical records, we pay attention to their small cap picks. In this article, we use hedge fund filing data to analyze NorthStar Asset Management Group Inc (NYSE:NSAM).
NorthStar Asset Management Group Inc (NYSE:NSAM) investors should be aware of a decrease in support from the world’s most elite money managers of late. 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 J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE:JCP), Lithia Motors Inc (NYSE:LAD), and BWX Technologies Inc (NYSE:BWXT) to gather more data points.
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With all of this in mind, we’re going to take a look at the key action surrounding NorthStar Asset Management Group Inc (NYSE:NSAM).
How have hedgies been trading NorthStar Asset Management Group Inc (NYSE:NSAM)?
Heading into Q4, a total of 56 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of -11% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).
When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Robert Pitts’s Steadfast Capital Management has the number one position in NorthStar Asset Management Group Inc (NYSE:NSAM), worth close to $208.7 million, accounting for 4.2% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is MSDC Management, managed by Marc Lisker, Glenn Fuhrman and John Phelan, which holds a $183.4 million position; 6% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other members of the smart money that hold long positions encompass Robert Pohly’s Samlyn Capital, Glenn Fuhrman and John Phelan’s MSD Capital and Daniel Lewis’ Orange Capital.
Since NorthStar Asset Management Group Inc (NYSE:NSAM) has witnessed a declination in interest from the smart money, it’s easy to see that there exists a select few hedgies who were dropping their full holdings last quarter. At the top of the heap, David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital dropped the biggest investment of the 700 funds monitored by Insider Monkey, comprising close to $56.5 million in stock. Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s fund, Marshall Wace LLP, also dropped its stock, about $26.5 million worth. These moves are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 7 funds last quarter.
Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as NorthStar Asset Management Group Inc (NYSE:NSAM) but similarly valued. We will take a look at J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE:JCP), Lithia Motors Inc (NYSE:LAD), BWX Technologies Inc (NYSE:BWXT), and Jack in the Box Inc. (NASDAQ:JACK). This group of stocks’ market caps match NSAM’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| JCP | 35 | 423832 | 4 |
| LAD | 23 | 293597 | 2 |
| BWXT | 26 | 506212 | 12 |
| JACK | 27 | 163296 | -4 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 27.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $347 million. That figure was $1374 million in NSAM’s case. J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE:JCP) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Lithia Motors Inc (NYSE:LAD) is the least popular one with only 23 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks NorthStar Asset Management Group Inc (NYSE:NSAM) 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.
