The latest 13F reporting period has come and gone, and Insider Monkey is again at the forefront when it comes to making use of this gold mine of data. We at Insider Monkey have plowed through 867 13F filings that hedge funds and well-known value investors are required to file by the SEC. The 13F filings show the funds’ and investors’ portfolio positions as of September 30th. Hedge funds’ consensus stock picks performed spectacularly over the last 3 years, but 2022 hasn’t been kind to hedge funds. In this article we look at how hedge funds traded Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE:GOLD) and determine whether the smart money was really smart about this stock.
Is Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE:GOLD) a buy right now? The smart money was selling. The number of bullish hedge fund bets fell by 6 lately. Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE:GOLD) was in 41 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2021. The all time high for this statistic is 54. Our calculations also showed that GOLD isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings).
At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, lithium prices have more than doubled over the past year, so 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. Keeping this in mind let’s take a look at the fresh hedge fund action surrounding Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE:GOLD).
Kerr Neilson of Platinum Asset Management
Do Hedge Funds Think GOLD Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
Heading into the fourth quarter of 2021, a total of 41 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of -13% from the second quarter of 2021. By comparison, 52 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in GOLD a year ago. So, let’s examine which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
The largest stake in Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE:GOLD) was held by Renaissance Technologies, which reported holding $196.9 million worth of stock at the end of September. It was followed by Platinum Asset Management with a $128.8 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included Citadel Investment Group, Paulson & Co, and Oldfield Partners. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Odey Asset Management Group allocated the biggest weight to Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE:GOLD), around 10.04% of its 13F portfolio. Oldfield Partners is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 8.67 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to GOLD.
Seeing as Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE:GOLD) has experienced declining sentiment from the smart money, we can see that there were a few hedge funds who were dropping their positions entirely by the end of the third quarter. Intriguingly, Ryan Caldwell’s Chiron Investment Management dropped the largest stake of the 750 funds watched by Insider Monkey, worth about $18.9 million in stock, and Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $18 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 6 funds by the end of the third quarter.
Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE:GOLD) but similarly valued. These stocks are Rocket Companies, Inc. (NYSE:RKT), Mettler-Toledo International Inc. (NYSE:MTD), HubSpot Inc (NYSE:HUBS), HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ), The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB), West Pharmaceutical Services Inc. (NYSE:WST), and Liberty Broadband Corp (NASDAQ:LBRDK). This group of stocks’ market valuations resemble GOLD’s market valuation.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| RKT | 17 | 100749 | 4 |
| MTD | 31 | 1109108 | -4 |
| HUBS | 48 | 2864600 | -6 |
| HPQ | 34 | 1043926 | -5 |
| WMB | 40 | 658659 | 1 |
| WST | 29 | 794549 | -2 |
| LBRDK | 63 | 7101088 | 0 |
| Average | 37.4 | 1953240 | -1.7 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 37.4 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1953 million. That figure was $918 million in GOLD’s case. Liberty Broadband Corp (NASDAQ:LBRDK) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Rocket Companies, Inc. (NYSE:RKT) is the least popular one with only 17 bullish hedge fund positions. Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE:GOLD) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for GOLD is 47.9. 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. 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 29.6% in 2021 and still beat the market by 3.6 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on GOLD as the stock returned 7.4% since the end of Q3 (through 1/31) and outperformed the market. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.
Follow Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD)
Follow Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD)
Suggested Articles:
- Top 10 Dividend Stocks That Pay Monthly
- 16 Funny Female Dating Profile Examples
- 10 Best Energy Stocks for 2021
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
