Many prominent investors, including Warren Buffett, David Tepper and Stan Druckenmiller, have been cautious regarding the current bull market and missed out as the stock market reached another high in recent weeks. On the other hand, technology hedge funds weren’t timid and registered double digit market beating gains. Financials, energy and industrial stocks initially suffered the most but many of these stocks delivered strong returns since November and hedge funds actually increased their positions in these stocks. In this article we will find out how hedge fund sentiment towards Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX) changed recently.
Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX) has seen an increase in enthusiasm from smart money lately. Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX) was in 31 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the second quarter of 2021. The all time high for this statistic is 38. There were 27 hedge funds in our database with STX holdings at the end of March. Our calculations also showed that STX isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q2 rankings).
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Do Hedge Funds Think STX Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
At the end of the second quarter, a total of 31 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 15% from one quarter earlier. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in STX over the last 24 quarters. So, let’s find out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
Among these funds, ValueAct Capital held the most valuable stake in Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX), which was worth $1528 million at the end of the second quarter. On the second spot was Balyasny Asset Management which amassed $422.6 million worth of shares. Polar Capital, Citadel Investment Group, and Millennium Management 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 ValueAct Capital allocated the biggest weight to Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX), around 18.27% of its 13F portfolio. Panview Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 2.93 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to STX.
As industrywide interest jumped, specific money managers were breaking ground themselves. Balyasny Asset Management, managed by Dmitry Balyasny, initiated the largest call position in Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX). Balyasny Asset Management had $422.6 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Brian Ashford-Russell and Tim Woolley’s Polar Capital also made a $126.9 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new STX investors: Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management, Richard SchimeláandáLawrence Sapanski’s Cinctive Capital Management, and Ryan Thall’s Panview Capital.
Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX) but similarly valued. These stocks are KeyCorp (NYSE:KEY), Entergy Corporation (NYSE:ETR), L Brands Inc (NYSE:LB), Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALNY), Lyft, Inc. (NASDAQ:LYFT), Avangrid, Inc. (NYSE:AGR), and Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (NYSE:WPM). This group of stocks’ market caps resemble STX’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| KEY | 40 | 443140 | -1 |
| ETR | 31 | 595450 | 0 |
| LB | 53 | 6315005 | -6 |
| ALNY | 33 | 1022981 | 0 |
| LYFT | 43 | 1385923 | -17 |
| AGR | 12 | 46317 | -3 |
| WPM | 26 | 471762 | -2 |
| Average | 34 | 1468654 | -4.1 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 34 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1469 million. That figure was $1920 million in STX’s case. L Brands Inc (NYSE:LB) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Avangrid, Inc. (NYSE:AGR) is the least popular one with only 12 bullish hedge fund positions. Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for STX is 56.6. 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 through November 5th and still beat the market by 3.1 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on STX as the stock returned 10.9% since the end of the second quarter (through 11/5) and outperformed the market by an even larger margin.
Follow Seagate Technology Holdings Plc (NASDAQ:STX)
Follow Seagate Technology Holdings Plc (NASDAQ:STX)
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
