Is Republic Services, Inc. (NYSE:RSG) a good stock to buy right now? We at Insider Monkey like to examine what billionaires and hedge funds think of a company before doing days of research on it. Given their 2 and 20 payment structure, hedge funds have more resources than the average investor. The funds have access to expert networks and get tips from industry insiders. They also have numerous Ivy League graduates and MBAs. Like everyone else, hedge funds perform miserably at times, but their consensus picks have historically outperformed the market after risk adjustments. More recently the top 30 mid-cap stocks (market caps between $1 billion and $10 billion) among hedge funds delivered an average return of 18% during the last four quarters (S&P 500 Index funds returned only 7.6% during the same period).
Is Republic Services, Inc. (NYSE:RSG) ready to rally soon? The best stock pickers are in a bearish mood. The number of bullish hedge fund positions decreased by 4 in recent months. At the end of this article we will also compare RSG to other stocks including Under Armour Inc (NYSE:UA), Hartford Financial Services Group Inc (NYSE:HIG), and International Paper Company (NYSE:IP) to get a better sense of its popularity.
Follow Republic Services Inc. (NYSE:RSG)
Follow Republic Services Inc. (NYSE:RSG)
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How are hedge funds trading Republic Services, Inc. (NYSE:RSG)?
At the end of the third quarter, a total of 21 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a 16% drop from one quarter earlier. Hedge fund ownership of the stock has now fallen by 27% in the last year. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes considerably (or already accumulated large positions).
According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, AQR Capital Management, managed by Cliff Asness, holds the biggest position in Republic Services, Inc. (NYSE:RSG). AQR Capital Management has a $181.8 million position in the stock. On AQR Capital Management’s heels is GAMCO Investors, led by Mario Gabelli, holding a $143.1 million position. Some other professional money managers that hold long positions contain Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital, D E Shaw, and David Harding’s Winton Capital Management.
