Out of thousands of stocks that are currently traded on the market, it is difficult to determine those that can really generate strong returns. Hedge funds and institutional investors spend millions of dollars on analysts with MBAs and PhDs, who are industry experts and well connected to other industry and media insiders on top of that. Individual investors can piggyback the hedge funds employing these talents and can benefit from their vast resources and knowledge in that way. We analyze quarterly 13F filings of over 700 hedge funds and, by looking at the smart money sentiment that surrounds a stock, we can determine whether it has potential to beat the market over the long-term. Therefore, let’s take a closer look at what smart money thinks about Raymond James Financial, Inc. (NYSE:RJF).
Raymond James Financial, Inc. (NYSE:RJF) has experienced an increase in enthusiasm from smart money in recent months. RJF was in 31 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2018. There were 30 hedge funds in our database with RJF holdings at the end of the previous quarter. Check out the the list of 30 most popular stocks among ALL hedge funds.
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The St. Petersburg, Fla.-based company logged net income attributable for the fourth fiscal quarter of $262.7 million, or $1.76 per share, up from $193.5 million, or $1.31 per share, in the year-ago period.
Adjusted net income clocked in at $250.8 million, or $1.68 per share, in comparison to $217.3 million, or $1.47 per share. Net revenue came up to $1.90 billion, an increase over the year-ago $1.69 billion in the same period a year ago.
Raymond James attributed its positive earnings performance to growth in private client group assets in fee-based accounts, alongside investment banking revenues.
We’re going to go over the latest hedge fund action regarding Raymond James Financial, Inc. (NYSE:RJF).
Hedge fund activity in Raymond James Financial, Inc. (NYSE:RJF)
At the end of the third quarter, a total of 31 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 3% from the previous quarter. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards RJF over the last 13 quarters. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).
The largest stake in Raymond James Financial, Inc. (NYSE:RJF) was held by Viking Global, which reported holding $384.1 million worth of stock at the end of September. It was followed by Brave Warrior Capital with a $191 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included Fisher Asset Management, Palestra Capital Management, and Highfields Capital Management.
As one would reasonably expect, key hedge funds have been driving this bullishness. Brave Warrior Capital, managed by Glenn Greenberg, initiated the most outsized position in Raymond James Financial, Inc. (NYSE:RJF). Brave Warrior Capital had $191 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Malcolm Fairbairn’s Ascend Capital also made a $21.9 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new RJF investors: Jeffrey Talpins’s Element Capital Management, Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management, and Roger Ibbotson’s Zebra Capital Management.
Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Raymond James Financial, Inc. (NYSE:RJF). Altice USA, Inc. (NYSE:ATUS), Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAS), and Annaly Capital Management, Inc. (NYSE:NLY). This group of stocks’ market caps are similar to AAPL’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| TLRY | 9 | 345132 | 9 |
| ATUS | 47 | 1492070 | 9 |
| HAS | 20 | 279183 | 3 |
| NLY | 23 | 346629 | 7 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 24.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $616 million. That figure was $1292 million in RJF’s case. Altice USA, Inc. (NYSE:ATUS) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAS) is the least popular one with only 20 bullish hedge fund positions.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
