At Insider Monkey, we pore over the filings of nearly 867 top investment firms every quarter, a process we have now completed for the latest reporting period. The data we’ve gathered as a result gives us access to a wealth of collective knowledge based on these firms’ portfolio holdings as of September 30th. In this article, we will use that wealth of knowledge to determine whether or not Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE:GOLD) makes for a good investment right now.
Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE:GOLD) investors should pay attention to a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money lately. Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE:GOLD) was in 41 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. The all time high for this statistic is 54. Our calculations also showed that GOLD isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings).
Kerr Neilson of Platinum 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 let’s take a look at the latest hedge fund action regarding Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE:GOLD).
Do Hedge Funds Think GOLD Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
At Q3’s end, a total of 41 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of -13% from one quarter earlier. By comparison, 52 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in GOLD a year ago. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).
When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Renaissance Technologies, holds the most valuable position in Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE:GOLD). Renaissance Technologies has a $196.9 million position in the stock, comprising 0.3% of its 13F portfolio. On Renaissance Technologies’s heels is Platinum Asset Management, managed by Kerr Neilson, which holds a $128.8 million position; the fund has 3.6% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other professional money managers with similar optimism encompass Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, John Paulson’s Paulson & Co and Richard Oldfield’s Oldfield Partners. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Odey Asset Management Group allocated the biggest weight to Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE:GOLD), around 10.04% of its 13F portfolio. Oldfield Partners is also relatively very bullish on the stock, designating 8.67 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to GOLD.
Seeing as Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE:GOLD) has faced a decline in interest from hedge fund managers, logic holds that there is a sect of hedgies that decided to sell off their entire stakes last quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Ryan Caldwell’s Chiron Investment Management dumped the largest investment of the 750 funds monitored by Insider Monkey, valued at about $18.9 million in stock. Dmitry Balyasny’s fund, Balyasny Asset Management, also dropped its stock, about $18 million worth. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as total hedge fund interest fell by 6 funds last quarter.
Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE:GOLD). These stocks are Rocket Companies, Inc. (NYSE:RKT), Mettler-Toledo International Inc. (NYSE:MTD), HubSpot Inc (NYSE:HUBS), HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ), Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB), West Pharmaceutical Services Inc. (NYSE:WST), and Liberty Broadband Corp (NASDAQ:LBRDK). All of these stocks’ market caps are similar to GOLD’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| RKT | 17 | 100749 | 4 |
| MTD | 31 | 1109108 | -4 |
| HUBS | 48 | 2864600 | -6 |
| HPQ | 34 | 1043926 | -5 |
| WMB | 40 | 658659 | 1 |
| WST | 29 | 794549 | -2 |
| LBRDK | 63 | 7101088 | 0 |
| Average | 37.4 | 1953240 | -1.7 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 37.4 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1953 million. That figure was $918 million in GOLD’s case. Liberty Broadband Corp (NASDAQ:LBRDK) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Rocket Companies, Inc. (NYSE:RKT) is the least popular one with only 17 bullish hedge fund positions. Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE:GOLD) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for GOLD is 47.9. 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. 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 still beat the market by 5.6 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on GOLD, though not to the same extent, as the stock returned 6.5% since Q3 (through November 30th) and outperformed the market as well.
Follow Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD)
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
