Is Oshkosh (OSK) Stock A Buy or Sell?

With the fourth-quarter round of 13F filings behind us it is time to take a look at the stocks in which some of the best money managers in the world preferred to invest or sell heading into the first quarter of 2021. One of these stocks was Oshkosh Corporation (NYSE:OSK).

Is OSK stock a buy or sell? Oshkosh Corporation (NYSE:OSK) has seen an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds recently. Oshkosh Corporation (NYSE:OSK) was in 40 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of December. The all time high for this statistic is 30. This means the bullish number of hedge fund positions in this stock currently sits at its all time high. Our calculations also showed that OSK isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q4 rankings).

Hedge funds’ reputation as shrewd investors has been tarnished in the last decade as their hedged returns couldn’t keep up with the unhedged returns of the market indices. Our research was able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by more than 124 percentage points since March 2017 (see the details here).

Clint Carlson of Carlson Capital

At Insider Monkey we leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, the House passed a landmark bill decriminalizing marijuana. So, we are checking out this under the radar cannabis stock right now. We go through lists like the 10 best battery stocks to buy to identify the next stock with 10x upside potential. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. You can subscribe to our free daily newsletter on our website. Keeping this in mind let’s take a peek at the fresh hedge fund action surrounding Oshkosh Corporation (NYSE:OSK).

Do Hedge Funds Think OSK Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?

At the end of December, a total of 40 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 38% from the previous quarter. By comparison, 28 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in OSK a year ago. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).

Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, holds the largest position in Oshkosh Corporation (NYSE:OSK). Citadel Investment Group has a $120.6 million position in the stock, comprising less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio. On Citadel Investment Group’s heels is Israel Englander of Millennium Management, with a $59.1 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining peers that are bullish contain Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management and Clint Murray’s Lodge Hill Capital. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Lodge Hill Capital allocated the biggest weight to Oshkosh Corporation (NYSE:OSK), around 7.09% of its 13F portfolio. Cartenna Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, designating 3.3 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to OSK.

Now, some big names were breaking ground themselves. Point72 Asset Management, managed by Steve Cohen, assembled the largest position in Oshkosh Corporation (NYSE:OSK). Point72 Asset Management had $8.7 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Clint Carlson’s Carlson Capital also initiated a $6.1 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new OSK investors: Sander Gerber’s Hudson Bay Capital Management, Louis Bacon’s Moore Global Investments, and Peter Avellone’s Cartenna Capital.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Oshkosh Corporation (NYSE:OSK). These stocks are Polaris Inc. (NYSE:PII), Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo – SABESP (NYSE:SBS), Leggett & Platt, Inc. (NYSE:LEG), Turning Point Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:TPTX), Parsley Energy Inc (NYSE:PE), Nikola Corporation (NASDAQ:NKLA), and Herbalife Nutrition Ltd. (NYSE:HLF). This group of stocks’ market values are closest to OSK’s market value.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 25.9 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $741 million. That figure was $406 million in OSK’s case. Herbalife Nutrition Ltd. (NYSE:HLF) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand CCompanhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo – SABESP (NYSE:SBS) is the least popular one with only 12 bullish hedge fund positions. Oshkosh Corporation (NYSE:OSK) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for OSK is 88.3. 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 OSK as the stock returned 40.2% since the end of Q4 (through 3/19) and outperformed the market. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.

Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.