Why Investors Are Clamoring for Xenia Hotels & Resorts Inc (XHR), New Senior Investment Group Inc (SNR), Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. (CRESY), and KKR & Co. L.P. (KKR)

683 Capital Partners is an employee-owned hedge fund sponsor managed by Ari Zweiman, which reported holding a public equity portfolio worth $627.17 million as of the end of June. As per our calculations, 683 Capital Partners’ 15 long positions in stocks that were valued at at least $1 billion at the end of the June delivered a positive return of 16.27% in the third quarter. Out of those 15, we are going to discuss four later on in this article – Xenia Hotels & Resorts Inc (NYSE:XHR),  New Senior Investment Group Inc (NYSE:SNR), Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. (ADR) (NASDAQ:CRESY), and KKR & Co. L.P. (NYSE:KKR).

It is worth mentioning that our way of measuring average weighted returns doesn’t include holdings in small-cap companies, short positions, and similar instruments, so those returns may differ from the fund’s actual returns. Nevertheless, analyzing long positions in $1 billion dollar companies has proved to be a successful guide for assessing the fund’s investment skills. Having said that, let’s examine the Q3 performances of the aforementioned companies.

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Let’s begin with Xenia Hotels & Resorts Inc (NYSE:XHR), a company that, despite the fund’ strong stock picking performance during the third quarter, delivered a negative return of 7.9% during that time. At the end of June, 683 Capital Partners held 712,000 shares of the company, which were valued at $11.95 million, and amassed 1.90% of its equity portfolio’s value. Since the beginning of the year, the company’s shares have gained 5.54%,

At the end of the second quarter, 11 hedge funds that we track were bullish on this stock, an 8% decline from one quarter earlier. According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, one of the largest positions in Xenia Hotels & Resorts Inc (NYSE:XHR) was held by PAR Capital Management, managed by Paul Reeder and Edward Shapiro, which held an $8 million position. Remaining peers that were bullish contained Richard Rubin’s Hawkeye Capital, Charles Davidson’s Wexford Capital, and Seth Fischer’s Oasis Management.

The second stock we are going to examine, New Senior Investment Group Inc (NYSE:SNR), brought a positive return of 10.4% in the third quarter. Seeing its positive return, we can say that 683 Capital Partners made a mistake during the June quarter when it lowered its stake in the company by 15%, reporting a position that was valued at $16.34 million, comprising 2.60% of its portfolio.

Heading into the third quarter of 2016, a total of 15 of the hedge funds in our system were long this stock, a 7% rise from the previous quarter. More specifically, Omega Advisors was the largest shareholder of New Senior Investment Group Inc (NYSE:SNR), with a stake worth $45.5 million reported as of the end of June. Trailing Omega Advisors was Levin Capital Strategies, which amassed a stake valued at $43.3 million. Citadel Investment Group and Millennium Management also held valuable positions in the company.

We’ll check out two more of the fund’s stock picks on the next page.

After two real estate-related companies, we are going to discuss an agricultural company, Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. (ADR) (NASDAQ:CRESY). The fund decided to slightly lower its stake in the company, selling 1,562 shares of it during Q2, reporting a position worth around $15.68 million at the end of June. The position counted a total of 1.1 million shares and comprised 2.50% of its portfolio. Over the past 12 months, the company’s shares have advanced by 9.86%, and in the third quarter delivered a return of 26.4%.

Heading into the third quarter of 2016, a total of 11 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 10% from the previous quarter. When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Richard Mashaal’s RIMA Senvest Management had the most valuable position in Cresud S.A.C.I.F. y A. (ADR) (NASDAQ:CRESY), worth close to $33.8 million, amounting to 2.8% of its total 13F portfolio. Other hedge funds and institutional investors that are bullish consist of Mark T. Gallogly’s Centerbridge Partners, Herb Wagner’s FinePoint Capital, and Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital.

683 Capital Partners raised its stake in KKR & Co. L.P. (NYSE:KKR) by 14% during the June quarter, reporting a position that was worth $13.02 million, accounting for 2.08% of its equity portfolio on June 30. The fund made a great move investing further in KKR & Co. L.P. (NYSE:KKR), since the company returned 16.9% during the third quarter.

At the end of the second quarter, a total of 24 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, down by 11% from the first quarter of 2016. More specifically, Ariel Investments was the largest shareholder of KKR & Co. L.P. (NYSE:KKR), with a stake worth $131.6 million reported as of the end of June. Trailing Ariel Investments was Levin Capital Strategies, which amassed a stake valued at $39 million. Serengeti Asset Management, Private Capital Management, and Royce & Associates also held valuable positions in the company.

Disclosure: None