The worst seems over for the forest fires in Canada as Suncor Energy Inc. (USA) (NYSE:SU) recently said that it will seek to return most of its workers from their home regions and begin the process of restarting its Alberta oil sands facilities by next week. The forest fires have caused Suncor Energy Inc. (USA) (NYSE:SU) shares to dip from the end of April because the company has had to shut down production in the area as a safety precaution against the fire. Once production starts back up again, investors hope the company’s stock will be more correlated with crude prices, which currently are on a nice uptrend.
Is Suncor Energy Inc. (USA) (NYSE:SU) the right investment to pursue these days? The best stock pickers are in an optimistic mood. The number of long hedge fund positions moved up by three in recent months. At the end of this article we will also compare SU to other stocks including Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX), FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX), and Infosys Ltd ADR (NYSE:INFY) to get a better sense of its popularity.
Follow Suncor Energy Inc New (NYSE:SU)
Follow Suncor Energy Inc New (NYSE:SU)
In the financial world there are several methods stock traders employ to analyze their holdings. A couple of the most innovative methods are hedge fund and insider trading moves. Our experts have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best fund managers can outperform the broader indices by a solid amount (see the details here).
Now, we’re going to take a look at the new action surrounding Suncor Energy Inc. (USA) (NYSE:SU).
At Q1’s end, a total of 32 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 10% from the fourth quarter of 2015. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes significantly (or already accumulated large positions).
According to Insider Monkey’s hedge fund database, Berkshire Hathaway, managed by Warren Buffett, holds the number one position in Suncor Energy Inc. (USA) (NYSE:SU). Berkshire Hathaway has a $834.3 million position in the stock, comprising 0.6% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is AQR Capital Management, led by Cliff Asness, holding a $114.6 million position; 0.2% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining professional money managers that hold long positions comprise Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management, Stephen J. Errico’s Locust Wood Capital Advisers and Brian Ashford-Russell and Tim Woolley’s Polar Capital.
As one would reasonably expect, key money managers have jumped into Suncor Energy Inc. (USA) (NYSE:SU) headfirst and on the following page, we are going to take a look at some of the funds that initiated stakes in Suncor during the first three months of 2016.
Point72 Asia (Singapore), managed by Steve Cohen, initiated the most outsized position in Suncor Energy Inc. (USA) (NYSE:SU). Point72 Asia (Singapore) had $15.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. John Orrico’s Water Island Capital also made a $8 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new SU positions are Benjamin A. Smith’s Laurion Capital Management, Kenneth Tropin’s Graham Capital Management, and Brian Taylor’s Pine River Capital Management.
Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Suncor Energy Inc. (USA) (NYSE:SU) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX), FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX), Infosys Ltd ADR (NYSE:INFY), and American Tower Corp (NYSE:AMT). All of these stocks’ market caps match SU’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| NFLX | 64 | 6662765 | 0 |
| FDX | 45 | 3443380 | -2 |
| INFY | 21 | 986936 | 0 |
| AMT | 40 | 2582713 | 2 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 43 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $3419 million. That figure was $1661 million in Suncor’s case. Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Infosys Ltd ADR (NYSE:INFY) is the least popular one with only 21 bullish hedge fund positions. Suncor Energy Inc. (USA) (NYSE:SU) 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 NFLX might be a better candidate to consider a long position.
Disclosure: None
