We hate to say this but, we told you so. On February 27th we published an article with the title Recession is Imminent: We Need A Travel Ban NOW and predicted a US recession when the S&P 500 Index was trading at the 3150 level. We also told you to short the market and buy long-term Treasury bonds. Our article also called for a total international travel ban. While we were warning you, President Trump minimized the threat and failed to act promptly. As a result of his inaction, we will now experience a deeper recession (see why hell is coming).
In these volatile markets we scrutinize hedge fund filings to get a reading on which direction each stock might be going. 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 835 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 December 31st. In this article we look at what those investors think of Anaplan, Inc. (NYSE:PLAN).
Anaplan, Inc. (NYSE:PLAN) shareholders have witnessed an increase in support from the world’s most elite money managers of late. Our calculations also showed that PLAN isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q4 rankings and see the video at the end of this article for Q3 rankings).
Why do we pay any attention at all to hedge fund sentiment? Our research has shown that a select group of hedge fund holdings outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by more than 41 percentage points since March 2017 (see the details here). We were also able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that’ll significantly underperform the market. We have been tracking and sharing the list of these stocks since February 2017 and they lost 35.3% through March 3rd. That’s why we believe hedge fund sentiment is an extremely useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.
Gabriel Plotkin of Melvin Capital Management
We leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, this trader is claiming triple digit returns, so we check out his latest trade recommendations. Federal Reserve and Central Banks all around world are printing money like there is no tomorrow, so we check out this this precious metals expert’s stock pick. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences (by the way watch this video if you want to hear one of the best healthcare hedge fund manager’s coronavirus analysis). Our best call in 2020 was shorting the market when S&P 500 was trading at 3150 after realizing the coronavirus pandemic’s significance before most investors. Keeping this in mind let’s view the key hedge fund action surrounding Anaplan, Inc. (NYSE:PLAN).
How are hedge funds trading Anaplan, Inc. (NYSE:PLAN)?
Heading into the first quarter of 2020, a total of 57 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 30% from one quarter earlier. On the other hand, there were a total of 21 hedge funds with a bullish position in PLAN a year ago. So, let’s check out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
Among these funds, Coatue Management held the most valuable stake in Anaplan, Inc. (NYSE:PLAN), which was worth $477.2 million at the end of the third quarter. On the second spot was Melvin Capital Management which amassed $316.3 million worth of shares. D1 Capital Partners, Alkeon Capital Management, and Citadel Investment Group 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 Kayak Investment Partners allocated the biggest weight to Anaplan, Inc. (NYSE:PLAN), around 7.88% of its 13F portfolio. Berylson Capital Partners is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 4.85 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to PLAN.
Consequently, specific money managers have jumped into Anaplan, Inc. (NYSE:PLAN) headfirst. OZ Management, managed by Daniel S. Och, assembled the largest position in Anaplan, Inc. (NYSE:PLAN). OZ Management had $57.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global also made a $54.7 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Mick Hellman’s HMI Capital, Anthony Joseph Vaccarino’s North Fourth Asset Management, and Matthew Knauer and Mina Faltas’s Nokota Management.
Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Anaplan, Inc. (NYSE:PLAN) but similarly valued. We will take a look at FLIR Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:FLIR), Momo Inc (NASDAQ:MOMO), Owl Rock Capital Corporation (NYSE:ORCC), and WABCO Holdings Inc. (NYSE:WBC). This group of stocks’ market valuations are similar to PLAN’s market valuation.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| FLIR | 32 | 202619 | 7 |
| MOMO | 38 | 917767 | 11 |
| ORCC | 8 | 159825 | 2 |
| WBC | 34 | 1206287 | 2 |
| Average | 28 | 621625 | 5.5 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 28 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $622 million. That figure was $2188 million in PLAN’s case. Momo Inc (NASDAQ:MOMO) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Owl Rock Capital Corporation (NYSE:ORCC) is the least popular one with only 8 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Anaplan, Inc. (NYSE:PLAN) is more popular among hedge funds. Our calculations showed that top 10 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 41.4% in 2019 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 10.1 percentage points. These stocks lost 1.0% in 2020 through April 20th and still beat the market by 11 percentage points. Unfortunately PLAN wasn’t nearly as popular as these 10 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on PLAN were disappointed as the stock returned -28.4% during the three months of 2020 (through April 20th) and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 10 most popular stocks among hedge funds as most of these stocks already outperformed the market in 2020.
Video: Click the image to watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
