Insider Monkey finished processing more than 700 13F filings submitted by hedge funds and prominent investors. These filings show these funds’ portfolio positions as of December 31st, 2018. In this article we are going to take a look at smart money sentiment towards PotlatchDeltic Corporation (NASDAQ:PCH).
PotlatchDeltic Corporation (NASDAQ:PCH) was in 15 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the fourth quarter of 2018. PCH has experienced a decrease in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds in recent months. There were 16 hedge funds in our database with PCH positions at the end of the previous quarter. Our calculations also showed that PCH isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.
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 has shown that hedge funds’ large-cap stock picks indeed failed to beat the market between 1999 and 2016. However, we were able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that outperformed the market by 32 percentage points since May 2014 through March 12, 2019 (see the details here). We were also able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that’ll significantly underperform the market. We have been tracking and sharing the list of these stocks since February 2017 and they lost 27.5% through March 12, 2019. That’s why we believe hedge fund sentiment is an extremely useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.
We’re going to take a glance at the new hedge fund action regarding PotlatchDeltic Corporation (NASDAQ:PCH).
Hedge fund activity in PotlatchDeltic Corporation (NASDAQ:PCH)
At the end of the fourth quarter, a total of 15 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of -6% from the previous quarter. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards PCH over the last 14 quarters. So, let’s see which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Southeastern Asset Management, managed by Mason Hawkins, holds the biggest position in PotlatchDeltic Corporation (NASDAQ:PCH). Southeastern Asset Management has a $146.5 million position in the stock, comprising 2.1% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Renaissance Technologies, led by Jim Simons, holding a $88.7 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other peers with similar optimism comprise Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates and Greg Poole’s Echo Street Capital Management.
Because PotlatchDeltic Corporation (NASDAQ:PCH) has experienced falling interest from hedge fund managers, we can see that there were a few funds that decided to sell off their full holdings in the third quarter. Intriguingly, Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP said goodbye to the largest position of the “upper crust” of funds watched by Insider Monkey, worth about $6.1 million in stock. Michael Platt and William Reeves’s fund, BlueCrest Capital Mgmt., also dropped its stock, about $0.7 million worth. These moves are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 1 funds in the third quarter.
Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as PotlatchDeltic Corporation (NASDAQ:PCH) but similarly valued. These stocks are The Michaels Companies, Inc. (NASDAQ:MIK), Nelnet, Inc. (NYSE:NNI), Avanos Medical, Inc. (NYSE:AVNS), and Advanced Disposal Services, Inc. (NYSE:ADSW). This group of stocks’ market valuations are similar to PCH’s market valuation.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| MIK | 30 | 255528 | 4 |
| NNI | 14 | 68393 | -1 |
| AVNS | 14 | 45065 | -3 |
| ADSW | 15 | 123133 | 3 |
| Average | 18.25 | 123030 | 0.75 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 18.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $123 million. That figure was $280 million in PCH’s case. The Michaels Companies, Inc. (NASDAQ:MIK) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Nelnet, Inc. (NYSE:NNI) is the least popular one with only 14 bullish hedge fund positions. PotlatchDeltic Corporation (NASDAQ:PCH) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our calculations showed that top 15 most popular stocks) among hedge funds returned 24.2% through April 22nd and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by more than 7 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on PCH, though not to the same extent, as the stock returned 19.6% and outperformed the market as well.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
