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 March 31, so let’s proceed with the discussion of the hedge fund sentiment on Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL).
Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) has seen a decrease in hedge fund sentiment recently. Our calculations also showed that ORCL isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.
To the average investor there are a multitude of methods stock traders can use to size up stocks. Some of the most under-the-radar methods are hedge fund and insider trading moves. Our experts have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite fund managers can outclass the market by a very impressive amount (see the details here).
Boykin Curry of Eagle Capital
Let’s take a gander at the fresh hedge fund action regarding Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL).
How are hedge funds trading Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL)?
At the end of the first quarter, a total of 52 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of -4% from the fourth quarter of 2018. By comparison, 52 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in ORCL a year ago. So, let’s examine which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
More specifically, Eagle Capital Management was the largest shareholder of Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL), with a stake worth $1264.1 million reported as of the end of March. Trailing Eagle Capital Management was Fisher Asset Management, which amassed a stake valued at $656.6 million. Yacktman Asset Management, D E Shaw, and Pzena Investment Management were also very fond of the stock, giving the stock large weights in their portfolios.
Seeing as Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) has faced bearish sentiment from hedge fund managers, it’s safe to say that there exists a select few hedgies that decided to sell off their entire stakes by the end of the third quarter. At the top of the heap, Barry Dargan’s Intermede Investment Partners cut the largest position of all the hedgies monitored by Insider Monkey, worth an estimated $43.3 million in stock. Robert Pohly’s fund, Samlyn Capital, also dropped its stock, about $26 million worth. These moves are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 2 funds by the end of the third quarter.
Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA), PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP), Toyota Motor Corporation (NYSE:TM), and Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV (NYSE:BUD). This group of stocks’ market valuations are closest to ORCL’s market valuation.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| CMCSA | 87 | 6279870 | 4 |
| PEP | 51 | 4490981 | -2 |
| TM | 10 | 161453 | 2 |
| BUD | 22 | 1493242 | 1 |
| Average | 42.5 | 3106387 | 1.25 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 42.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $3106 million. That figure was $4995 million in ORCL’s case. Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Toyota Motor Corporation (NYSE:TM) is the least popular one with only 10 bullish hedge fund positions. Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) 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. Our calculations showed that top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 1.9% in Q2 through May 30th and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by more than 3 percentage points. Unfortunately ORCL wasn’t nearly as popular as these 20 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on ORCL were disappointed as the stock returned -3.3% during the same period and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds as 13 of these stocks already outperformed the market so far in Q2.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
