Is GasLog Ltd (NYSE:GLOG) a good bet right now? We like to analyze hedge fund sentiment before doing days of in-depth research. We do so because hedge funds and other elite investors have numerous Ivy League graduates, expert network advisers, and supply chain tipsters working or consulting for them. There is not a shortage of news stories covering failed hedge fund investments (for some reason media paid a ton of attention to Ackman’s gigantic JC Penney and Valeant failures) and it is a fact that hedge funds’ picks don’t beat the market 100% of the time, but their consensus picks have historically done very well and have outperformed the market after adjusting for risk.
GasLog Ltd (NYSE:GLOG) has seen an increase in hedge fund sentiment in recent months. GLOG was in 16 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. There were 10 hedge funds in our database with GLOG positions at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of this article we will also compare GLOG to other stocks including Par Pacific Holdings, Inc. (NYSEMKT:PARR), American Railcar Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARII), and NutriSystem Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRI) to get a better sense of its popularity.
In the eyes of most stock holders, hedge funds are viewed as worthless, outdated financial vehicles of the past. While there are over 8000 funds trading at present, We look at the aristocrats of this group, approximately 700 funds. These investment experts direct the majority of the hedge fund industry’s total asset base, and by observing their finest picks, Insider Monkey has revealed a few investment strategies that have historically outstripped the S&P 500 index. Insider Monkey’s small-cap hedge fund strategy outrun the S&P 500 index by 12 percentage points per year for a decade in their back tests.
Keeping this in mind, let’s go over the new action surrounding GasLog Ltd (NYSE:GLOG).
Hedge fund activity in GasLog Ltd (NYSE:GLOG)
At Q3’s end, a total of 16 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 60% from the second quarter. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes substantially (or already accumulated large positions).
According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, John A. Levin’s Levin Capital Strategies has the largest position in GasLog Ltd (NYSE:GLOG), worth close to $14.5 million, comprising 0.2% of its total 13F portfolio. On Levin Capital Strategies’s heels is Seven Locks Capital Management, led by Andrew Goldman, holding an $6 million position; 1.9% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining peers that are bullish comprise Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP, Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management and Anand Parekh’s Alyeska Investment Group.
As aggregate interest increased, some big names were leading the bulls’ herd. Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, established a position in GasLog Ltd (NYSE:GLOG). Renaissance Technologies had $1.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Peter Muller’s PDT Partners also made an $1 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new GLOG positions are Brian Taylor’s Pine River Capital Management, Michael Platt and William Reeves’s BlueCrest Capital Mgmt., and Benjamin A. Smith’s Laurion Capital Management.
Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to GasLog Ltd (NYSE:GLOG). We will take a look at Par Pacific Holdings, Inc. (NYSEMKT:PARR), American Railcar Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARII), NutriSystem Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRI), and Central Garden & Pet Co (NASDAQ:CENT). This group of stocks’ market valuations are similar to GLOG’s market valuation.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| PARR | 11 | 219791 | -1 |
| ARII | 6 | 446872 | -5 |
| NTRI | 27 | 146856 | 3 |
| CENT | 20 | 102629 | 4 |
As you can see from the table above, these stocks had an average of 16 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $229 million. That figure was $38 million in GLOG’s case. NutriSystem Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRI) is the most popular stock in this group, while the least popular one is American Railcar Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARII). In comparison, GasLog Ltd (NYSE:GLOG) is not the least popular stock in this group, but hedge fund interest is still not impressive. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time on analyzing stocks that hedge funds are collectively the fondest of and, in this case, NTRI may be a better alternative.
