Before we spend many hours researching a company, we’d like to analyze what insiders, hedge funds and billionaire investors think of the stock first. We would like to do so because the elite investors’ consensus returns have been exceptional. In the following paragraphs, we find out what the billionaire investors and hedge funds think of Rollins, Inc. (NYSE:ROL).
Is Rollins, Inc. (NYSE:ROL) worth your attention right now? Prominent investors are getting more optimistic. The number of bullish hedge fund bets moved up by 1 recently. Our calculations also showed that rol isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds. ROL was in 17 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2018. There were 16 hedge funds in our database with ROL positions at the end of the previous quarter.
In the 21st century investor’s toolkit there are tons of signals market participants can use to appraise their holdings. A duo of the most underrated signals are hedge fund and insider trading activity. Our experts have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite investment managers can outperform the S&P 500 by a very impressive amount (see the details here).
We’re going to take a glance at the new hedge fund action encompassing Rollins, Inc. (NYSE:ROL).
Hedge fund activity in Rollins, Inc. (NYSE:ROL)
At Q3’s end, a total of 17 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 ROL over the last 13 quarters. So, let’s review which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, GAMCO Investors, managed by Mario Gabelli, holds the most valuable position in Rollins, Inc. (NYSE:ROL). GAMCO Investors has a $118.8 million position in the stock, comprising 0.8% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is AQR Capital Management, led by Cliff Asness, holding a $43.1 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other peers that hold long positions include Tom Gayner’s Markel Gayner Asset Management, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.
With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key money managers were breaking ground themselves. Adage Capital Management, managed by Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson, established the largest position in Rollins, Inc. (NYSE:ROL). Adage Capital Management had $8.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Michael Platt and William Reeves’s BlueCrest Capital Mgmt. also initiated a $7 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management and Brandon Haley’s Holocene Advisors.
Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Rollins, Inc. (NYSE:ROL). We will take a look at Wayfair Inc (NYSE:W), Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ:GRMN), Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ:SYMC), and Old Dominion Freight Line, Inc. (NASDAQ:ODFL). All of these stocks’ market caps are closest to ROL’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| W | 30 | 1549111 | 0 |
| GRMN | 27 | 306746 | 2 |
| SYMC | 33 | 1466884 | 8 |
| ODFL | 24 | 253269 | 4 |
| Average | 28.5 | 894003 | 3.5 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 28.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $894 million. That figure was $287 million in ROL’s case. Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ:SYMC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Old Dominion Freight Line, Inc. (NASDAQ:ODFL) is the least popular one with only 24 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Rollins, Inc. (NYSE:ROL) is even less popular than ODFL. Considering that hedge funds aren’t fond of this stock in relation to other companies analyzed in this article, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and understand why the smart money isn’t behind this stock. This isn’t necessarily bad news. Although it is possible that hedge funds may think the stock is overpriced and view the stock as a short candidate, they may not be very familiar with the bullish thesis. In either case more research is warranted.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
