Is QRVO Stock A Buy or Sell?

Insider Monkey has processed numerous 13F filings of hedge funds and successful value investors to create an extensive database of hedge fund holdings. The 13F filings show the hedge funds’ and successful investors’ positions as of the end of the fourth quarter. You can find articles about an individual hedge fund’s trades on numerous financial news websites. However, in this article we will take a look at their collective moves over the last 5 years and analyze what the smart money thinks of Qorvo Inc (NASDAQ:QRVO) based on that data.

Is QRVO stock a buy or sell? Hedge fund interest in Qorvo Inc (NASDAQ:QRVO) shares was flat at the end of last quarter. This is usually a negative indicator. Our calculations also showed that QRVO isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q4 rankings). 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 TransUnion (NYSE:TRU), CDW Corporation (NASDAQ:CDW), and ZoomInfo Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:ZI) to gather more data points.

So, why do we pay attention to hedge fund sentiment before making any investment decisions? Our research has shown that hedge funds’ small-cap stock picks managed to beat the market by double digits annually between 1999 and 2016, but the margin of outperformance has been declining in recent years. Nevertheless, we were still 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).

Seth Klarman of Baupost Group

At Insider Monkey we leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, lithium mining is one of the fastest growing industries right now, so we are checking out stock pitches like this emerging lithium stock. We go through lists like the 10 best hydrogen fuel cell stocks to pick the next Tesla that will deliver a 10x return. 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 homepage (or at the end of this article). With all of this in mind let’s check out the fresh hedge fund action regarding Qorvo Inc (NASDAQ:QRVO).

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

Heading into the first quarter of 2021, a total of 51 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 0% from the previous quarter. On the other hand, there were a total of 45 hedge funds with a bullish position in QRVO 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.

The largest stake in Qorvo Inc (NASDAQ:QRVO) was held by Baupost Group, which reported holding $738.3 million worth of stock at the end of December. It was followed by AQR Capital Management with a $169.3 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included Iridian Asset Management, Fisher Asset Management, and Select Equity Group. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Panview Capital allocated the biggest weight to Qorvo Inc (NASDAQ:QRVO), around 7.73% of its 13F portfolio. Baupost Group is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 6.81 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to QRVO.

Since Qorvo Inc (NASDAQ:QRVO) has faced falling interest from the smart money, it’s easy to see that there were a few hedgies that slashed their positions entirely last quarter. At the top of the heap, John Hurley’s Cavalry Asset Management dropped the largest investment of the 750 funds tracked by Insider Monkey, totaling an estimated $29.7 million in stock, and Michael Burry’s Scion Asset Management was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $7.7 million worth. These moves are important to note, as total hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Qorvo Inc (NASDAQ:QRVO). We will take a look at TransUnion (NYSE:TRU), CDW Corporation (NASDAQ:CDW), ZoomInfo Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:ZI), Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (NYSE:WPM), Expedia Group Inc (NASDAQ:EXPE), Pioneer Natural Resources Company (NYSE:PXD), and Hologic, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOLX). This group of stocks’ market caps match QRVO’s market cap.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 44 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1818 million. That figure was $2122 million in QRVO’s case. Expedia Group Inc (NASDAQ:EXPE) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand ZoomInfo Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:ZI) is the least popular one with only 31 bullish hedge fund positions. Qorvo Inc (NASDAQ:QRVO) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for QRVO is 57.2. 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 QRVO as the stock returned 8.2% 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.