Hedge funds and other investment firms run by legendary investors like Israel Englander and Ray Dalio are entrusted to manage billions of dollars of accredited investors’ money because they are without peer in the resources they use to identify the best investments for their chosen investment horizon. Moreover, they are more willing to invest a greater amount of their resources in small-cap stocks than big brokerage houses, and this is often where they generate their outperformance, which is why we pay particular attention to their best ideas in this space.
Intrawest Resorts Holdings Inc (NYSE:SNOW) investors should be aware of an increase in enthusiasm from smart money in recent months. SNOW was in 10 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. There were 8 hedge funds in our database with SNOW positions at the end of the previous quarter. The level and the change in hedge fund popularity aren’t the only variables you need to analyze to decipher hedge funds’ perspectives. A stock may witness a boost in popularity but it may still be less popular than similarly priced stocks. That’s why at the end of this article we will examine companies such as Endeavour Silver Corp. (CAN) (NYSE:EXK), Vitamin Shoppe Inc (NYSE:VSI), and Chase Corporation (NYSEAMEX:CCF) to gather more data points.
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Hedge fund activity in Intrawest Resorts Holdings Inc (NYSE:SNOW)
At Q3’s end, a total of 10 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a gain of 25% from the second quarter of 2016. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards SNOW over the last 5 quarters. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes considerably (or already accumulated large positions).
According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Renaissance Technologies, one of the largest hedge funds in the world, holds the most valuable position in Intrawest Resorts Holdings Inc (NYSE:SNOW). Renaissance Technologies has a $22.1 million position in the stock. On Renaissance Technologies’ heels is Mason Hawkins of Southeastern Asset Management which holds a $7.2 million position. Some other professional money managers that hold long positions comprise Richard Driehaus’ Driehaus Capital, John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw. We should note that Southeastern Asset Management is among our list of the 100 best performing hedge funds which is based on the performance of their 13F long positions in non-microcap stocks.
With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, specific money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Southeastern Asset Management assembled the largest position in Intrawest Resorts Holdings Inc (NYSE:SNOW). Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital also initiated a $0.4 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new SNOW investors: Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management and Cliff Asness’ AQR Capital Management.
Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Intrawest Resorts Holdings Inc (NYSE:SNOW) but similarly valued. These stocks are Endeavour Silver Corp. (CAN) (NYSE:EXK), Vitamin Shoppe Inc (NYSE:VSI), Chase Corporation (NYSEAMEX:CCF), and NeoGenomics, Inc. (NASDAQ:NEO). This group of stocks’ market caps match SNOW’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| EXK | 8 | 46891 | 1 |
| VSI | 13 | 132387 | -2 |
| CCF | 8 | 50602 | 3 |
| NEO | 12 | 29095 | -1 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 10 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $65 million. That figure was $36 million in SNOW’s case. Vitamin Shoppe Inc (NYSE:VSI) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Endeavour Silver Corp. (CAN) (NYSE:EXK) is the least popular one with only 8 bullish hedge fund positions. Intrawest Resorts Holdings Inc (NYSE:SNOW) 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 VSI might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.
Disclosure: None
