The Insider Monkey team has completed processing the quarterly 13F filings for the June quarter submitted by the hedge funds and other money managers included in our extensive database. Most hedge fund investors experienced strong gains on the back of a strong market performance, which certainly propelled them to adjust their equity holdings so as to maintain the desired risk profile. As a result, the relevancy of these public filings and their content is indisputable, as they may reveal numerous high-potential stocks. The following article will discuss the smart money sentiment towards American Tower Corporation (REIT) (NYSE:AMT).
Is American Tower Corporation (REIT) (NYSE:AMT) an excellent investment now? Investors who are in the know were taking a pessimistic view. The number of long hedge fund bets were cut by 3 recently. American Tower Corporation (REIT) (NYSE:AMT) was in 55 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of June. The all time high for this statistic is 62. Our calculations also showed that AMT isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q2 rankings).
Hedge funds’ reputation as shrewd investors has been tarnished in the last decade as their hedged returns couldn’t keep up with the unhedged returns of the market indices. Hedge funds have more than $3.5 trillion in assets under management, so you can’t expect their entire portfolios to beat the market by large margins. Our research was able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by more than 79 percentage points since March 2017 (see the details here). So you can still find a lot of gems by following hedge funds’ moves today.
Charles Akre of Akre Capital Management
At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, the demand for helium is soaring and there is a helium supply shortage, so we are checking out stock pitches like this emerging helium stock. We go through lists like the 10 best EV stocks to pick the next Tesla that will deliver a 10x return. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. You can subscribe to our free daily newsletter on our homepage. With all of this in mind we’re going to take a look at the fresh hedge fund action surrounding American Tower Corporation (REIT) (NYSE:AMT).
Do Hedge Funds Think AMT Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
At the end of June, a total of 55 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of -5% from the previous quarter. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards AMT over the last 24 quarters. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings significantly (or already accumulated large positions).
More specifically, Akre Capital Management was the largest shareholder of American Tower Corporation (REIT) (NYSE:AMT), with a stake worth $1895.4 million reported as of the end of June. Trailing Akre Capital Management was Cantillon Capital Management, which amassed a stake valued at $531.4 million. Fisher Asset Management, Alkeon Capital Management, and D E Shaw were also very fond of the stock, becoming one of the largest hedge fund holders of the company. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Akre Capital Management allocated the biggest weight to American Tower Corporation (REIT) (NYSE:AMT), around 11.67% of its 13F portfolio. Heard Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 8.98 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to AMT.
Since American Tower Corporation (REIT) (NYSE:AMT) has experienced a decline in interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s safe to say that there lies a certain “tier” of funds who sold off their entire stakes heading into Q3. Interestingly, Brandon Haley’s Holocene Advisors said goodbye to the largest stake of all the hedgies monitored by Insider Monkey, valued at an estimated $130.7 million in stock, and Jaime Sterne’s Skye Global Management was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $53.1 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 3 funds heading into Q3.
Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as American Tower Corporation (REIT) (NYSE:AMT) but similarly valued. These stocks are Sony Group Corp (NYSE:SONY), Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT), Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT), TotalEnergies SE (NYSE:TTE), General Electric Company (NYSE:GE), HSBC Holdings plc (NYSE:HSBC), and Vale SA (NYSE:VALE). This group of stocks’ market values are similar to AMT’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| SONY | 20 | 409056 | -7 |
| TGT | 66 | 5865028 | 6 |
| CAT | 62 | 5264268 | 9 |
| TTE | 15 | 1132420 | -2 |
| GE | 67 | 6087180 | -1 |
| HSBC | 11 | 212763 | -1 |
| VALE | 27 | 3573958 | -4 |
| Average | 38.3 | 3220668 | 0 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 38.3 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $3221 million. That figure was $4720 million in AMT’s case. General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand HSBC Holdings plc (NYSE:HSBC) is the least popular one with only 11 bullish hedge fund positions. American Tower Corporation (REIT) (NYSE:AMT) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for AMT is 67.9. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. Our calculations showed that top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 95.8% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 40 percentage points. These stocks gained 26.3% in 2021 through October 29th and beat the market again by 2.3 percentage points. Unfortunately AMT wasn’t nearly as popular as these 5 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on AMT were disappointed as the stock returned 4.9% since the end of June (through 10/29) and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds as many of these stocks already outperformed the market since 2019.
Follow American Tower Corp (NYSE:AMT)
Follow American Tower Corp (NYSE:AMT)
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
