The latest 13F reporting period has come and gone, and Insider Monkey is again at the forefront when it comes to making use of this gold mine of data. Insider Monkey finished processing more than 750 13F filings submitted by hedge funds and prominent investors. These filings show these funds’ portfolio positions as of September 30th, 2019. In this article we are going to take a look at smart money sentiment towards SiteOne Landscape Supply, Inc. (NYSE:SITE).
SiteOne Landscape Supply, Inc. (NYSE:SITE) has experienced an increase in support from the world’s most elite money managers in recent months. SITE was in 13 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. There were 12 hedge funds in our database with SITE holdings at the end of the previous quarter. Our calculations also showed that SITE isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings and see the video below for Q2 rankings).
Video: Click the image to watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.
In the financial world there are a large number of tools investors have at their disposal to grade stocks. A pair of the most under-the-radar tools are hedge fund and insider trading indicators. We have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best fund managers can outperform the broader indices by a solid amount. Insider Monkey’s flagship best performing hedge funds strategy returned 91% since May 2014 and outperformed the Russell 2000 ETFs by nearly 40 percentage points. Our short strategy outperformed the S&P 500 short ETFs by 20 percentage points annually (see the details here). That’s why we believe hedge fund sentiment is a useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.
Dmitry Balyasny of Balyasny Asset Managemnet
We leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example Europe is set to become the world’s largest cannabis market, so we check out this European marijuana stock pitch. One of the most bullish analysts in America just put his money where his mouth is. He says, “I’m investing more today than I did back in early 2009.” So we check out his pitch. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. We also rely on the best performing hedge funds‘ buy/sell signals. We’re going to go over the latest hedge fund action regarding SiteOne Landscape Supply, Inc. (NYSE:SITE).
What does smart money think about SiteOne Landscape Supply, Inc. (NYSE:SITE)?
At Q3’s end, a total of 13 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 8% from the second quarter of 2019. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in SITE over the last 17 quarters. So, let’s find out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
The largest stake in SiteOne Landscape Supply, Inc. (NYSE:SITE) was held by Greenhouse Funds, which reported holding $13.7 million worth of stock at the end of September. It was followed by Balyasny Asset Management with a $9.4 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included Citadel Investment Group, Lionstone Capital Management, and Driehaus Capital. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Greenhouse Funds allocated the biggest weight to SiteOne Landscape Supply, Inc. (NYSE:SITE), around 2.79% of its 13F portfolio. Lionstone Capital Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 2.41 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to SITE.
Consequently, key money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Driehaus Capital, managed by Richard Driehaus, initiated the most outsized position in SiteOne Landscape Supply, Inc. (NYSE:SITE). Driehaus Capital had $4.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. David E. Shaw’s D E Shaw also initiated a $4.3 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new SITE positions are Peter Muller’s PDT Partners, Peter Algert and Kevin Coldiron’s Algert Coldiron Investors, and Hoon Kim’s Quantinno Capital.
Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as SiteOne Landscape Supply, Inc. (NYSE:SITE) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Regal Beloit Corporation (NYSE:RBC), South Jersey Industries Inc (NYSE:SJI), Hamilton Lane Incorporated (NASDAQ:HLNE), and Steven Madden, Ltd. (NASDAQ:SHOO). This group of stocks’ market caps match SITE’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| RBC | 18 | 205507 | 1 |
| SJI | 12 | 64716 | -1 |
| HLNE | 14 | 98910 | 8 |
| SHOO | 17 | 45054 | 3 |
| Average | 15.25 | 103547 | 2.75 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 15.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $104 million. That figure was $54 million in SITE’s case. Regal Beloit Corporation (NYSE:RBC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand South Jersey Industries Inc (NYSE:SJI) is the least popular one with only 12 bullish hedge fund positions. SiteOne Landscape Supply, Inc. (NYSE:SITE) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our calculations showed that top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 37.4% in 2019 through the end of November and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 9.9 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on SITE as the stock returned 19.9% during the first two months of Q4 and outperformed the market by an even larger margin.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
