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. We at Insider Monkey have plowed through 867 13F filings that hedge funds and well-known value investors are required to file by the SEC. The 13F filings show the funds’ and investors’ portfolio positions as of September 30th. In this article we look at what those investors think of U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB).
Is USB a good stock to buy? U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) investors should pay attention to an increase in support from the world’s most elite money managers recently. U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) was in 42 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2021. The all time high for this statistic is 60. Our calculations also showed that USB isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings).
Donald Yacktman of Yacktman Asset Management
At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, lithium prices have more than doubled over the past year, so we go through lists like the 10 best EV stocks to pick the next Tesla that will deliver a 10x return. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. With all of this in mind we’re going to review the new hedge fund action surrounding U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB).
Do Hedge Funds Think USB Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
Heading into the fourth quarter of 2021, a total of 42 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 2% from the second quarter of 2021. By comparison, 48 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in USB a year ago. So, let’s see which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has the most valuable position in U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB), worth close to $7.5143 billion, accounting for 2.6% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Yacktman Asset Management, managed by Donald Yacktman, which holds a $279.4 million position; the fund has 2.7% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining members of the smart money that hold long positions comprise Brandon Haley’s Holocene Advisors, and Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position BlueMar Capital Management allocated the biggest weight to U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB), around 4.33% of its 13F portfolio. Prana Capital Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, setting aside 3.67 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to USB.
Consequently, specific money managers have jumped into U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) headfirst. Marshall Wace LLP, managed by Paul Marshall and Ian Wace, created the most outsized position in U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB). Marshall Wace LLP had $7.6 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Sahm Adrangi’s Kerrisdale Capital also initiated a $3.7 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new USB investors: David Harding’s Winton Capital Management, Mark McMeans’s Brasada Capital Management, and Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp.
Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB). We will take a look at Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD), PetroChina Company Limited (NYSE:PTR), Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP), Uber Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:UBER), Altria Group Inc (NYSE:MO), Brookfield Asset Management Inc. (NYSE:BAM), and Mercadolibre Inc (NASDAQ:MELI). All of these stocks’ market caps match USB’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| GILD | 55 | 1751615 | 1 |
| PTR | 7 | 94903 | -1 |
| ADP | 43 | 3616230 | 2 |
| UBER | 143 | 10766637 | 8 |
| MO | 45 | 829789 | -2 |
| BAM | 32 | 2498829 | -2 |
| MELI | 68 | 4371182 | -6 |
| Average | 56.1 | 3418455 | 0 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 56.1 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $3418 million. That figure was $8391 million in USB’s case. Uber Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:UBER) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand PetroChina Company Limited (NYSE:PTR) is the least popular one with only 7 bullish hedge fund positions. U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for USB is 39.9. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. Our calculations showed that top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 95.8% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 40 percentage points. These stocks gained 28.6% in 2021 through November 30th and surpassed the market again by 5.6 percentage points. Unfortunately USB wasn’t nearly as popular as these 5 stocks (hedge fund sentiment was quite bearish); USB investors were disappointed as the stock returned -6.9% since the end of September (through 11/30) and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds as most of these stocks already outperformed the market in 2021.
Follow Us Bancorp (NYSE:USB)
Follow Us Bancorp (NYSE:USB)
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
