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 887 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 December 31st. In this article we look at what those investors think of V.F. Corporation (NYSE:VFC).
Is VFC stock a buy? Prominent investors were betting on the stock. The number of bullish hedge fund positions rose by 9 recently. V.F. Corporation (NYSE:VFC) was in 31 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of December. The all time high for this statistic is 36. Our calculations also showed that VFC isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q4 rankings).
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 monthly stock picks returned 197% since March 2017 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by more than 124 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 Management
At Insider Monkey we leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, the CBD market is growing at a 33% annualized rate, so we are taking a closer look at this under-the-radar hemp stock. We go through lists like the 10 best biotech stocks under $10 to identify the next stock with 10x upside potential. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. You can subscribe to our free daily newsletter on our website. With all of this in mind we’re going to check out the fresh hedge fund action regarding V.F. Corporation (NYSE:VFC).
Do Hedge Funds Think VFC Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
At fourth quarter’s end, a total of 31 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 41% from the previous quarter. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in VFC over the last 22 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.
More specifically, Diamond Hill Capital was the largest shareholder of V.F. Corporation (NYSE:VFC), with a stake worth $386.6 million reported as of the end of December. Trailing Diamond Hill Capital was Millennium Management, which amassed a stake valued at $86.6 million. Point72 Asset Management, Junto Capital Management, and Citadel Investment Group were also very fond of the stock, becoming one of the largest hedge fund holders of the company. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Junto Capital Management allocated the biggest weight to V.F. Corporation (NYSE:VFC), around 2.24% of its 13F portfolio. Diamond Hill Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 1.82 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to VFC.
As aggregate interest increased, some big names have been driving this bullishness. Point72 Asset Management, managed by Steve Cohen, created the biggest position in V.F. Corporation (NYSE:VFC). Point72 Asset Management had $73.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. James Parsons’s Junto Capital Management also initiated a $68.9 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new VFC investors: Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management, Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital, and Peter Muller’s PDT Partners.
Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to V.F. Corporation (NYSE:VFC). These stocks are Okta, Inc. (NASDAQ:OKTA), Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA (NYSE:BBVA), O’Reilly Automotive Inc (NASDAQ:ORLY), Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM), Carrier Global Corporation (NYSE:CARR), American International Group Inc (NYSE:AIG), and Banco Santander (Brasil) SA (NYSE:BSBR). All of these stocks’ market caps resemble VFC’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| OKTA | 61 | 2308732 | 10 |
| BBVA | 9 | 196955 | -1 |
| ORLY | 49 | 2416443 | -9 |
| YUM | 33 | 1199106 | -9 |
| CARR | 52 | 2284818 | 3 |
| AIG | 41 | 2081359 | 3 |
| BSBR | 6 | 6844 | 1 |
| Average | 35.9 | 1499180 | -0.3 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 35.9 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1499 million. That figure was $760 million in VFC’s case. Okta, Inc. (NASDAQ:OKTA) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Banco Santander (Brasil) SA (NYSE:BSBR) is the least popular one with only 6 bullish hedge fund positions. V.F. Corporation (NYSE:VFC) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for VFC is 58.6. 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 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 81.2% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 26 percentage points. These stocks gained 12.2% in 2021 through April 12th and surpassed the market again by 1.5 percentage points. Unfortunately VFC wasn’t nearly as popular as these 30 stocks (hedge fund sentiment was quite bearish); VFC investors were disappointed as the stock returned 0% since the end of December (through 4/12) and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds as most of these stocks already outperformed the market in 2020.
Follow V F Corp (NYSE:VFC)
Follow V F Corp (NYSE:VFC)
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
