The financial regulations require hedge funds and wealthy investors that exceeded the $100 million holdings threshold to file a report that shows their positions at the end of every quarter. Even though it isn’t the intention, these filings to a certain extent level the playing field for ordinary investors. The latest round of 13F filings disclosed the funds’ positions on March 31st. We at Insider Monkey have made an extensive database of more than 866 of those established hedge funds and famous value investors’ filings. In this article, we analyze how these elite funds and prominent investors traded ICC Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:ICCH) based on those filings.
Hedge fund interest in ICC Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:ICCH) shares was flat at the end of last quarter. This is usually a negative indicator. Our calculations also showed that ICCH isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings). The level and the change in hedge fund popularity aren’t the only variables you need to analyze to decipher hedge funds’ perspectives. A stock may witness a boost in popularity but it may still be less popular than similarly priced stocks. That’s why at the end of this article we will examine companies such as CBM Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBMB), Bellerophon Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLPH), and Vinco Ventures, Inc. (NASDAQ:BBIG) to gather more data points.
In the financial world there are a large number of signals stock market investors have at their disposal to assess stocks. Some of the most useful signals are hedge fund and insider trading moves. We have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best fund managers can outpace the S&P 500 by a solid margin (see the details here). Also, our monthly newsletter’s portfolio of long stock picks returned 206.8% since March 2017 (through May 2021) and beat the S&P 500 Index by more than 115 percentage points. You can download a sample issue of this newsletter on our website .
Michael Price of MFP Investors
At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, an activist hedge fund wants to buy this $26 biotech stock for $50. So, we recommended a long position to our monthly premium newsletter subscribers. We go through lists like the 10 best battery 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. Keeping this in mind we’re going to take a glance at the key hedge fund action encompassing ICC Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:ICCH).
Do Hedge Funds Think ICCH Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
At the end of March, a total of 3 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 0% from the previous quarter. By comparison, 3 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in ICCH a year ago. So, let’s see which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
More specifically, MFP Investors was the largest shareholder of ICC Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:ICCH), with a stake worth $0.7 million reported as of the end of March. Trailing MFP Investors was Minerva Advisors, which amassed a stake valued at $0.5 million. Arbiter Partners Capital Management was 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 Minerva Advisors allocated the biggest weight to ICC Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:ICCH), around 0.27% of its 13F portfolio. MFP Investors is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 0.09 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to ICCH.
Earlier we told you that the aggregate hedge fund interest in the stock was unchanged and we view this as a negative development. Even though there weren’t any hedge funds dumping their holdings during the third quarter, there weren’t any hedge funds initiating brand new positions. This indicates that hedge funds, at the very best, perceive this stock as dead money and they haven’t identified any viable catalysts that can attract investor attention.
Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to ICC Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:ICCH). These stocks are CBM Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBMB), Bellerophon Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLPH), Vinco Ventures, Inc. (NASDAQ:BBIG), Alterity Therapeutics Limited (NASDAQ:ATHE), VirTra, Inc. (NASDAQ:VTSI), Ballantyne Strong Inc (NYSE:BTN), and Mid-Southern Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:MSVB). This group of stocks’ market valuations match ICCH’s market valuation.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| CBMB | 2 | 896 | -1 |
| BLPH | 6 | 2093 | 5 |
| BBIG | 1 | 59 | 1 |
| ATHE | 2 | 418 | 0 |
| VTSI | 4 | 7850 | 3 |
| BTN | 4 | 4046 | 2 |
| MSVB | 3 | 3599 | -1 |
| Average | 3.1 | 2709 | 1.3 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 3.1 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $3 million. That figure was $1 million in ICCH’s case. Bellerophon Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLPH) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Vinco Ventures, Inc. (NASDAQ:BBIG) is the least popular one with only 1 bullish hedge fund positions. ICC Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:ICCH) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for ICCH is 55. 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 negative signal and 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 17.2% in 2021 through June 11th and surpassed the market again by 3.3 percentage points. Unfortunately ICCH wasn’t nearly as popular as these 5 stocks (hedge fund sentiment was quite bearish); ICCH investors were disappointed as the stock returned 5.6% since the end of March (through 6/11) 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 most of these stocks already outperformed the market in 2021.
Follow Icc Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:ICCH)
Follow Icc Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:ICCH)
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
