Last year we predicted the arrival of the first US recession since 2009 and we told in advance that the market will decline by at least 20% in (Recession is Imminent: We Need A Travel Ban NOW). In these volatile markets we scrutinize hedge fund filings to get a reading on which direction each stock might be going. In this article, we will take a closer look at hedge fund sentiment towards Life Storage, Inc. (NYSE:LSI).
Is Life Storage, Inc. (NYSE:LSI) the right pick for your portfolio? Investors who are in the know were turning bullish. The number of bullish hedge fund positions moved up by 3 recently. Life Storage, Inc. (NYSE:LSI) was in 24 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. The all time high for this statistic is 26. Our calculations also showed that LSI isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings).
Ken Heebner of Capital Growth 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. Now we’re going to take a glance at the new hedge fund action encompassing Life Storage, Inc. (NYSE:LSI).
Do Hedge Funds Think LSI Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
At the end of September, a total of 24 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 14% from the second quarter of 2021. On the other hand, there were a total of 18 hedge funds with a bullish position in LSI a year ago. So, let’s check out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
The largest stake in Life Storage, Inc. (NYSE:LSI) was held by Millennium Management, which reported holding $70.9 million worth of stock at the end of September. It was followed by Waterfront Capital Partners with a $62.2 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included Citadel Investment Group, Capital Growth Management, and Renaissance Technologies. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Waterfront Capital Partners allocated the biggest weight to Life Storage, Inc. (NYSE:LSI), around 4.38% of its 13F portfolio. Hill Winds Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, dishing out 2.84 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to LSI.
As industrywide interest jumped, specific money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Renaissance Technologies, assembled the largest position in Life Storage, Inc. (NYSE:LSI). Renaissance Technologies had $24.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Matthew Crandall Gilman’s Hill Winds Capital also made a $6 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Matthew L Pinz’s Pinz Capital, John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors, and Donald Sussman’s Paloma Partners.
Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Life Storage, Inc. (NYSE:LSI). We will take a look at Cree, Inc. (NASDAQ:CREE), Lear Corporation (NYSE:LEA), Banco de Chile (NYSE:BCH), ICL Group Ltd. (NYSE:ICL), Erie Indemnity Company (NASDAQ:ERIE), Ares Capital Corporation (NASDAQ:ARCC), and TELUS International (Cda) Inc. (NYSE:TIXT). All of these stocks’ market caps match LSI’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| CREE | 21 | 246808 | -10 |
| LEA | 32 | 1191330 | -2 |
| BCH | 8 | 42959 | 1 |
| ICL | 6 | 87041 | 0 |
| ERIE | 13 | 43560 | -2 |
| ARCC | 12 | 94646 | 0 |
| TIXT | 21 | 70748 | 15 |
| Average | 16.1 | 253870 | 0.3 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 16.1 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $254 million. That figure was $327 million in LSI’s case. Lear Corporation (NYSE:LEA) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand ICL Group Ltd. (NYSE:ICL) is the least popular one with only 6 bullish hedge fund positions. Life Storage, Inc. (NYSE:LSI) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for LSI is 70.3. 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 31.1% in 2021 through December 9th and still beat the market by 5.1 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on LSI as the stock returned 22.6% since the end of Q3 (through 12/9) and outperformed the market. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
