If you are looking for the best ideas for your portfolio you may want to consider some of Ensemble Capital’s top stock picks. Ensemble Capital, an investment management firm, is bullish on First Republic Bank (NYSE:FRC) stock. In its Q4 2019 investor letter – you can download a copy here – the firm discussed its investment thesis on First Republic Bank (NYSE:FRC) stock. First Republic Bank (NYSE:FRC) is a financial services company. The stock is down 10.5% since the Ensemble Capital’s pitch in January 2020, which suggests the investment firm was wrong in its decision. On a year-to-date basis, First Republic Bank (NYSE:FRC) stock has fallen by 10.9%.
On January 22, 2020, Ensemble Capital had released its Q4 2019 Investor Letter. Ensemble Capital said that First American Financial Corp (NYSE:FAF) stock has 7% weightage in the portfolio.
For the quarter ended December 31st, 2019, Ensemble Fund recorded a return of 9.87%, compared to 9.07% of the S&P 500 Index. This brings its 2019 full-year return to 39.55%, compared to 31.49% of the S&P 500 Index.
Let’s take a look at comments made by Ensemble Capital about First Republic Bank (NYSE:FRC) in the letter.
“On the strong side this quarter, First Republic (7.0% weight in portfolio) was up 22% as the company reported record high levels of new loan originations and the yield curve ended a period of inversion, where long-term rates are lower than short-term rates, pointing to stronger earnings power for the company in the year ahead.”
In Q1 2020, the number of bullish hedge fund positions on First Republic Bank (NYSE:FRC) stock increased by about 4% from the previous quarter (see the chart here), so a number of other hedge fund managers seem to agree with FRC’s growth potential. Our calculations showed that First Republic Bank (NYSE:FRC) isn’t ranked among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.
The top 10 stocks among hedge funds returned 185% since the end of 2014 and outperformed the S&P 500 Index ETFs by more than 109 percentage points. We know it sounds unbelievable. You have been dismissing our articles about top hedge fund stocks mostly because you were fed biased information by other media outlets about hedge funds’ poor performance. You could have doubled the size of your nest egg by investing in the top hedge fund stocks instead of dumb S&P 500 ETFs. Below you can watch our video about the top 5 hedge fund stocks right now. All of these stocks had positive returns in 2020.
Video: Top 5 Stocks Among Hedge Funds
At Insider Monkey we leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, 2020’s unprecedented market conditions provide us with the highest number of trading opportunities in a decade. So we are checking out stocks recommended/scorned by legendary Bill Miller. We interview hedge fund managers and ask them about their best ideas. If you want to find out the best healthcare stock to buy right now, you can watch our latest hedge fund manager interview here. 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 the S&P 500 was trading at 3150 after realizing the coronavirus pandemic’s significance before most investors. You can subscribe to our free enewsletter below to receive our stories in your inbox:
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
