What does the smart money think about Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (NYSE:LOW)?
At the end of the fourth quarter, a total of 66 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, an increase of 18% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, 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, Greenhaven Associates, managed by Edgar Wachenheim, holds the most valuable position in Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (NYSE:LOW). Greenhaven Associates has a $722.3 million position in the stock, comprising 13.7% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Iridian Asset Management, managed by David Cohen and Harold Levy, which holds a $544.1 million position; the fund has 4.5% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other professional money managers with similar optimism encompass Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.
With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key money managers were breaking ground themselves. Alkeon Capital Management, managed by Panayotis Takis Sparaggis, created the largest position in Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (NYSE:LOW). Alkeon Capital Management had $50.6 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Aaron Cowen’s Suvretta Capital Management also made a $47.3 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new LOW investors: Clint Carlson’s Carlson Capital, Benjamin A. Smith’s Laurion Capital Management, and Anand Parekh’s Alyeska Investment Group.
Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (NYSE:LOW). We will take a look at Diageo plc (ADR) (NYSE:DEO), American Express Company (NYSE:AXP), Biogen Idec Inc. (NASDAQ:BIIB), and Accenture Plc (NYSE:ACN). This group of stocks’ market values are closest to LOW’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| DEO | 19 | 1088170 | -6 |
| AXP | 53 | 14043962 | 1 |
| BIIB | 71 | 3743103 | 11 |
| ACN | 31 | 1332688 | -6 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 44 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $5.05 billion. That figure was $3.91 billion in LOW’s case. Biogen Idec Inc. (NASDAQ:BIIB) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Diageo plc (ADR) (NYSE:DEO) is the least popular one with only 19 bullish hedge fund positions. Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (NYSE:LOW) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard BIIB might be a better candidate to consider a long position.
Disclosure: none
