We at Insider Monkey have gone over 700 13F filings that hedge funds and prominent investors are required to file by the government. The 13F filings show the funds’ and investors’ portfolio positions as of September 30. In this article we look at what those investors think of SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ:SPWR).
Is SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ:SPWR) ready to rally soon? The smart money is buying. The number of long hedge fund positions increased by 3 lately. 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 John Wiley & Sons Inc (NYSE:JW.A), Columbia Property Trust Inc (NYSE:CXP), and Targa Resources Corp (NYSE:TRGP) to gather more data points.
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Follow Sunpower Corp (NASDAQ:SPWR)
In the financial world, there are tons of metrics shareholders put to use to value publicly traded companies. Some of the less utilized metrics are hedge fund and insider trading signals. We have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite fund managers can trounce the market by a healthy margin (see the details here).
Now, let’s analyze the key action surrounding SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ:SPWR).
How have hedgies been trading SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ:SPWR)?
Heading into Q4, a total of 20 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, an increase of 18% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes considerably (or already accumulated large positions).
Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Mike Masters’s Masters Capital Management has the most valuable position in SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ:SPWR), worth close to $18.7 million, accounting for 0.6% of its total 13F portfolio. On Masters Capital Management’s heels is Bernard Lambilliotte of Ecofin Ltd, with a $17.2 million position; the fund has 3.3% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining professional money managers that hold long positions include Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management, Ken Hahn’s Quentec Asset Management and Ian Simm’s Impax Asset Management.
As industrywide interest jumped, some big names have been driving this bullishness. Bronson Point Partners, managed by Larry Foley and Paul Farrell, established the most outsized position in SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ:SPWR). The fund reportedly had $2.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Israel Englander’s Millennium Management also made a $2.2 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new SPWR investors: John Kim’s Karamaan Group, Chao Ku’s Nine Chapters Capital Management, and Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp.
Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ:SPWR) but similarly valued. We will take a look at John Wiley & Sons Inc (NYSE:JW.A), Columbia Property Trust Inc (NYSE:CXP), Targa Resources Corp (NYSE:TRGP), and Mentor Graphics Corp (NASDAQ:MENT). This group of stocks’ market valuations are closest to SPWR’s market valuation.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| JW.A | 15 | 112973 | -7 |
| CXP | 9 | 237795 | -3 |
| TRGP | 22 | 265682 | 0 |
| MENT | 21 | 591591 | -2 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 17 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $302 million. In the case of SPWR, total hedge fund investment amounts to just $102 million. Targa Resources Corp (NYSE:TRGP) is the most popular stock in this table, while Columbia Property Trust Inc (NYSE:CXP) is the least popular one with only 9 bullish hedge fund positions. SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ:SPWR) 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 TRGP might be a better candidate to consider a long position.
