Insider Monkey finished processing more than 700 13F filings made by hedge funds and prominent investors. These filings show these funds’ portfolio positions as of September 30. In this article we are going to take a look at smart money sentiment towards the PowerShares QQQ Trust, Series 1 (ETF) (NASDAQ:QQQ).
Is the PowerShares QQQ Trust, Series 1 (ETF) (NASDAQ:QQQ) a cheap stock to buy now? Prominent investors are taking an optimistic view. The number of long hedge fund bets improved by 4 in recent months. QQQ was in 24 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. There were 20 hedge funds in our database with QQQ positions at the end of the previous quarter. 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 Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE:ITW), Sony Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:SNE), and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:REGN) to gather more data points.
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What have hedge funds been doing with the PowerShares QQQ Trust, Series 1 (ETF) (NASDAQ:QQQ)?
At the end of the third quarter, a total of 24 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a 20% rise from the previous quarter, pushing hedge fund ownership to its highest total in the past five quarters. 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 publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group has the biggest call position in the PowerShares QQQ Trust, Series 1 (ETF) (NASDAQ:QQQ), worth close to $508.8 million. Coming in second is Matthew Knauer and Mina Faltas of Nokota Management, with a $430.4 million call position; 7.5% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the holding. Some other professional money managers that are bullish contain Thomas Bailard’s Bailard Inc and J. Alan Reid, Jr.’s Forward Management.
As industry-wide interest jumped, specific money managers were breaking ground themselves. Citadel Investment Group created the biggest call position in the PowerShares QQQ Trust, Series 1 (ETF) (NASDAQ:QQQ), while Nokota Management also made a large new investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new QQQ investors: Forward Management, Leonard A. Potter’s Wildcat Capital Management, and Charles Davidson’s Wexford Capital.
Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to PowerShares QQQ Trust, Series 1 (ETF) (NASDAQ:QQQ). We will take a look at Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE:ITW), Sony Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:SNE), Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:REGN), and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA (ADR) (NYSE:BBVA). This group of stocks’ market caps resemble QQQ’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| ITW | 33 | 702872 | 1 |
| SNE | 13 | 327337 | -1 |
| REGN | 29 | 629847 | -3 |
| BBVA | 6 | 1595 | 3 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 20 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $415 million. That figure was $1.42 billion in QQQ’s case. Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE:ITW) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA (ADR) (NYSE:BBVA) is the least popular one with only 6 bullish hedge fund positions. The PowerShares QQQ Trust, Series 1 (ETF) (NASDAQ:QQQ) 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 ITW might be a better candidate to consider a long position in.
Disclosure: None
