We at Insider Monkey have gone over 700 13F filings that hedge funds and prominent investors are required to file by the SEC. 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 CDW Corp (NASDAQ:CDW).
CDW Corp (NASDAQ:CDW) shareholders have witnessed a decrease in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds recently, with hedge fund ownership of CDW crumbling to 21 from 30 quarter-over-quarter as of September 30. 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 RPM International Inc. (NYSE:RPM), The Middleby Corporation (NASDAQ:MIDD), and DDR Corp (NYSE:DDR) to gather more data points.
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At Insider Monkey, we’ve developed an investment strategy that has delivered market-beating returns over the past 12 months. Our strategy identifies the 100 best-performing funds of the previous quarter from among the collection of 700+ successful funds that we track in our database, which we accomplish using our returns methodology. We then study the portfolios of those 100 funds using the latest 13F data to uncover the 30 most popular mid-cap stocks (market caps of between $1 billion and $10 billion) among them to hold until the next filing period. This strategy delivered 18% gains over the past 12 months, more than doubling the 8% returns enjoyed by the S&P 500 ETFs.
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How have hedgies been trading CDW Corp (NASDAQ:CDW)?
At Q3’s end, a total of 21 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a 30% tumble from the previous quarter, pushing ownership to a yearly low. The tumble comes after a strong show of sentiment towards the stock from hedge funds in Q2. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).
Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Makaira Partners, managed by Thomas Bancroft, holds the most valuable position in CDW Corp (NASDAQ:CDW). Makaira Partners has an $83.9 million position in the stock, comprising 12.7% of its 13F portfolio. On Makaira Partners’ heels is GMT Capital, managed by Thomas E. Claugus, which holds a $56.1 million position; 1.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other members of the smart money that hold long positions consist of Anthony Bozza’s Lakewood Capital Management, Cliff Asness’ AQR Capital Management, and D E Shaw.
Because CDW Corp (NASDAQ:CDW) has witnessed a decline in interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, we can see that there exists a select few funds who were dropping their entire stakes in the third quarter. Intriguingly, Eli Cohen’s Crescent Park Management dropped the largest stake of the “upper crust” of funds monitored by Insider Monkey, worth about $17.8 million in stock, and George Hall’s Clinton Group was right behind this move, as the fund said goodbye to about $7.6 million worth of shares. These bearish behaviors are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 9 funds in the third quarter.
Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as CDW Corp (NASDAQ:CDW) but similarly valued. We will take a look at RPM International Inc. (NYSE:RPM), The Middleby Corporation (NASDAQ:MIDD), DDR Corp (NYSE:DDR), and EnCana Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ECA). This group of stocks’ market values resemble CDW’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| RPM | 25 | 129774 | 4 |
| MIDD | 26 | 345362 | 7 |
| DDR | 18 | 207446 | 2 |
| ECA | 37 | 2159354 | 11 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 26.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $710 million. That figure was $305 million in CDW’s case. EnCana Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ECA) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand DDR Corp (NYSE:DDR) is the least popular one with only 18 bullish hedge fund positions. CDW Corp (NASDAQ:CDW) 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 pouring money into. In this regard ECA might be a better candidate to consider a long position in.
Disclosure: None
