The worries about the economic slowdown in China and the ongoing uncertainty about the path of interest-rate increases triggered several waves of equity sell-offs during the third quarter. Of course, most hedge funds and other asset managers had to stomach substantial losses during the bloody three-month period, which might have caused some to consider fleeing the U.S. equity markets. Interestingly, smaller-cap stocks registered higher losses than large-capitalization stocks during the September quarter, suggesting that institutional investors heavily discarded seemingly riskier equities amid high uncertainty and turmoil. In fact, the Russell 2000 Index lost 11.9% in the third quarter, while the Standard and Poor’s 500 benchmark declined a mere 6.4%. This article will lay out and discuss the hedge fund and institutional investor sentiment towards Virtus Investment Partners Inc (NASDAQ:VRTS).
Virtus Investment Partners Inc has experienced a decrease in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds lately. VRTS was in 11 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2015. There were 13 hedge funds in our database with VRTS positions at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of this article we will also compare VRTS to other stocks, including Global Eagle Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ:ENT), BroadSoft Inc (NASDAQ:BSFT), and Qiwi PLC (NASDAQ:QIWI) to get a better sense of its popularity.
Follow Virtus Investment Partners Inc. (NASDAQ:VRTS)
Follow Virtus Investment Partners Inc. (NASDAQ:VRTS)
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With all of this in mind, we’re going to take a glance at the fresh action encompassing Virtus Investment Partners Inc (NASDAQ:VRTS).
What have hedge funds been doing with Virtus Investment Partners Inc (NASDAQ:VRTS)?
At the Q3’s end, a total of 11 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a decline of -15% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).
According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Huber Capital Management, managed by Joe Huber, holds the largest position in Virtus Investment Partners Inc (NASDAQ:VRTS). Huber Capital Management has a $51.5 million position in the stock, comprising 1.8% of its 13F portfolio. The second most bullish fund manager is Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, which holds a $23.5 million position; 0.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other hedge funds and institutional investors with similar optimism encompass Matthew A. Weatherbie’s Weatherbie Capital, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and Paul Reeder, and Edward Shapiro’s PAR Capital Management.
Because Virtus Investment Partners Inc (NASDAQ:VRTS) has witnessed bearish sentiment from the smart money, logic holds that there lies a certain “tier” of money managers who were dropping their full holdings in the third quarter. Interestingly, Murray Stahl’s Horizon Asset Management dumped the largest stake of all the hedgies watched by Insider Monkey, totaling close to $2.6 million in stock, and Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP was right behind this move, as the fund said goodbye to about $0.8 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 2 funds in the third quarter.
Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Virtus Investment Partners Inc (NASDAQ:VRTS). These stocks are Global Eagle Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ:ENT), BroadSoft Inc (NASDAQ:BSFT), Qiwi PLC (NASDAQ:QIWI), and United Fire Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:UFCS). This group of stocks’ market valuations are similar to VRTS’s market valuation.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| ENT | 17 | 443234 | -2 |
| BSFT | 14 | 104403 | -2 |
| QIWI | 8 | 81567 | -2 |
| UFCS | 8 | 19048 | 1 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 12 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $162 million. That figure was $124 million in VRTS’s case. Global Eagle Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ:ENT) is the most popular stock in this table, while Qiwi PLC (NASDAQ:QIWI) is the least popular one with only 8 bullish hedge fund positions. Virtus Investment Partners Inc (NASDAQ:VRTS) is not the least popular stock in this group, but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard ENT might be a better candidate to consider a long position.
