Before we spend countless hours researching a company, we like to analyze what insiders, hedge funds and billionaire investors think of the stock first. This is a necessary first step in our investment process because our research has shown that the elite investors’ consensus returns have been exceptional. In the following paragraphs, we find out what the billionaire investors and hedge funds think of Village Farms International, Inc. (NASDAQ:VFF).
Village Farms International, Inc. (NASDAQ:VFF) was in 3 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the first quarter of 2020. VFF has seen a decrease in hedge fund sentiment lately. There were 5 hedge funds in our database with VFF holdings at the end of the previous quarter. Our calculations also showed that VFF isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings and see the video for a quick look at the top 5 stocks).
Video: Watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.
In today’s marketplace there are many metrics shareholders put to use to analyze their stock investments. Two of the most underrated metrics are hedge fund and insider trading activity. Our researchers have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top money managers can outclass the broader indices by a solid margin (see the details here).
Joel Greenblatt of Gotham Asset Management
At Insider Monkey we leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, legendary investor Bill Miller told investors to sell 7 extremely popular recession stocks last month. So, we went through his list and recommended another stock with 100% upside potential instead. We interview hedge fund managers and ask them about their best ideas. You can watch our latest hedge fund manager interview here and find out the name of the large-cap healthcare stock that Sio Capital’s Michael Castor expects to double. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. Our best call in 2020 was shorting the market when S&P 500 was trading at 3150 after realizing the coronavirus pandemic’s significance before most investors. Now we’re going to take a look at the new hedge fund action regarding Village Farms International, Inc. (NASDAQ:VFF).
What does smart money think about Village Farms International, Inc. (NASDAQ:VFF)?
Heading into the second quarter of 2020, a total of 3 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of -40% from the previous quarter. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards VFF over the last 18 quarters. So, let’s examine which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
According to Insider Monkey’s hedge fund database, Renaissance Technologies has the biggest position in Village Farms International, Inc. (NASDAQ:VFF), worth close to $1.6 million, corresponding to less than 0.1%% of its total 13F portfolio. On Renaissance Technologies’s heels is Ken Griffin of Citadel Investment Group, with a $0.3 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other members of the smart money that are bullish consist of Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and . In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Renaissance Technologies allocated the biggest weight to Village Farms International, Inc. (NASDAQ:VFF), around 0.0016% of its 13F portfolio. Millennium Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 0.0002 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to VFF.
Due to the fact that Village Farms International, Inc. (NASDAQ:VFF) has faced falling interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s easy to see that there is a sect of hedgies who sold off their positions entirely heading into Q4. Intriguingly, John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors dumped the biggest stake of all the hedgies tracked by Insider Monkey, comprising about $1.7 million in stock. Donald Sussman’s fund, Paloma Partners, also sold off its stock, about $0.1 million worth. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 2 funds heading into Q4.
Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Village Farms International, Inc. (NASDAQ:VFF) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Covenant Transportation Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CVTI), Parke Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:PKBK), Blue Apron Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:APRN), and BiomX Inc. (NYSE:PHGE). This group of stocks’ market caps resemble VFF’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| CVTI | 9 | 7495 | 0 |
| PKBK | 4 | 9977 | 1 |
| APRN | 10 | 24852 | 1 |
| PHGE | 8 | 18324 | 0 |
| Average | 7.75 | 15162 | 0.5 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 7.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $15 million. That figure was $2 million in VFF’s case. Blue Apron Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:APRN) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Parke Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:PKBK) is the least popular one with only 4 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Village Farms International, Inc. (NASDAQ:VFF) is even less popular than PKBK. Hedge funds clearly dropped the ball on VFF as the stock delivered strong returns, though hedge funds’ consensus picks still generated respectable returns. Our calculations showed that top 10 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 41.4% in 2019 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 10.1 percentage points. These stocks gained 7.9% in 2020 through May 22nd and still beat the market by 15.6 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on VFF as the stock returned 81.8% so far in the second quarter and outperformed the market by an even larger margin.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
