The elite funds run by legendary investors such as Dan Loeb and David Tepper make hundreds of millions of dollars for themselves and their investors by spending enormous resources doing research on small cap stocks that big investment banks don’t follow. Because of their pay structures, they have strong incentive to do the research necessary to beat the market. That’s why we pay close attention to what they think in small cap stocks. In this article, we take a closer look at Seacor Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CKH) from the perspective of those elite funds.
Seacor Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CKH) investors should pay attention to an increase in enthusiasm from smart money of late. CKH was in 19 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. There were 18 hedge funds in our database with CKH positions at the end of the previous quarter. Our calculations also showed that CKH isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.
In the financial world there are many indicators market participants use to appraise stocks. Two of the most useful indicators are hedge fund and insider trading interest. Our experts have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite money managers can outclass their index-focused peers by a significant amount (see the details here).
We’re going to take a glance at the key hedge fund action regarding Seacor Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CKH).
What have hedge funds been doing with Seacor Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CKH)?
Heading into the fourth quarter of 2018, a total of 19 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 6% from the previous quarter. By comparison, 13 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in CKH heading into this year. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings significantly (or already accumulated large positions).
According to Insider Monkey’s hedge fund database, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the largest position in Seacor Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CKH). Royce & Associates has a $65.2 million position in the stock, comprising 0.4% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, which holds a $54.4 million position; 0.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other professional money managers that hold long positions consist of Noam Gottesman’s GLG Partners, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.
Consequently, key money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Magnetar Capital, managed by Alec Litowitz and Ross Laser, created the biggest position in Seacor Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CKH). Magnetar Capital had $0.6 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp also initiated a $0.3 million position during the quarter. The only other fund with a brand new CKH position is Gavin Saitowitz and Cisco J. del Valle’s Springbok Capital.
Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Seacor Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CKH). These stocks are Inspire Medical Systems, Inc. (NYSE:INSP), Ascena Retail Group Inc (NASDAQ:ASNA), Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC), and Control4 Corp (NASDAQ:CTRL). This group of stocks’ market values are similar to CKH’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| INSP | 13 | 173882 | 0 |
| ASNA | 21 | 147302 | 6 |
| PFBC | 11 | 53897 | -1 |
| CTRL | 12 | 64469 | 2 |
| Average | 14.25 | 109888 | 1.75 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 14.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $110 million. That figure was $149 million in CKH’s case. Ascena Retail Group Inc (NASDAQ:ASNA) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Preferred Bank (NASDAQ:PFBC) is the least popular one with only 11 bullish hedge fund positions. Seacor Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CKH) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard ASNA might be a better candidate to consider a long position.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
