As we already know from media reports and hedge fund investor letters, many hedge funds lost money in the third quarter, blaming macroeconomic conditions and unpredictable events that hit several sectors, with healthcare among them. Nevertheless, most investors decided to stick to their bullish theses and their long-term focus allows us to profit from the recent declines. In particular, let’s take a look at what hedge funds think about Travelers Companies Inc (NYSE:TRV) in this article.
Travelers Companies Inc has seen a decrease in hedge fund sentiment recently. TRV was in 32 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2015. There were 43 hedge funds in our database with TRV holdings at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of this article we will also compare TRV to other stocks including Brookfield Asset Management Inc. (USA) (NYSE:BAM), Sony Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:SNE), and Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:APC) to get a better sense of its popularity.
Follow Travelers Companies Inc. (NYSE:TRV)
Follow Travelers Companies Inc. (NYSE:TRV)
Today there are plenty of metrics market participants use to evaluate stocks. Some of the less known metrics are hedge fund and insider trading interest. Our researchers have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the top money managers can trounce the market by a significant amount (see the details here).
With all of this in mind, we’re going to go over the new action surrounding Travelers Companies Inc (NYSE:TRV).
How are hedge funds trading Travelers Companies Inc (NYSE:TRV)?
At Q3’s end, a total of 32 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of -26% from the second quarter. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings substantially (or already accumulated large positions).
Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, AQR Capital Management, managed by Cliff Asness, holds the largest position in Travelers Companies Inc (NYSE:TRV). AQR Capital Management has a $282.3 million position in the stock, comprising 0.6% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Winton Capital Management, managed by David Harding, which holds a $148.3 million position; 1.2% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining peers that hold long positions include Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital, Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP and Michael Messner’s Seminole Capital (Investment Mgmt).
Because Travelers Companies Inc (NYSE:TRV) has faced declining sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s safe to say that there were a few hedgies who sold off their full holdings last quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies dropped the largest position of the 700 funds followed by Insider Monkey, valued at close to $66.5 million in stock. Greg Poole’s fund, Echo Street Capital Management, also said goodbye to its stock, about $23 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 11 funds last quarter.
Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Travelers Companies Inc (NYSE:TRV). These stocks are Brookfield Asset Management Inc. (USA) (NYSE:BAM), Sony Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:SNE), Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:APC), and China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited (ADR) (NYSE:CHU). All of these stocks’ market caps match TRV’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| BAM | 23 | 1343401 | 4 |
| SNE | 21 | 328356 | 2 |
| APC | 70 | 3382512 | -5 |
| CHU | 9 | 33921 | 1 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 30.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1,272 million. That figure was $743 million in TRV’s case. Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:APC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited (ADR) (NYSE:CHU) is the least popular one with only 9 bullish hedge fund positions. Travelers Companies Inc (NYSE:TRV) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard APC might be a better candidate to consider a long position.
