5 Stocks Hedge Funds Dumped The Most: Guess How They Performed

4. SunPower (NASDAQ:SPWR)

– Number of hedge funds with bullish SunPower positions at the end of Q1: 35

– Number of hedge funds with bullish SunPower positions at the end of Q2: 17

– Return since June 30th: -16.0%

Solar stocks and their yieldcos are getting whacked left-and-right. Famed short seller Jim Chanos is targeting SolarCity Corp (NASDAQ:SCTY). Sunedison Inc (NYSE:SUNE) has lost a monumental 75% of its value since July. And SolarCity Corp (NASDAQ:SCTY), despite being the best performer in the industry, is well off its highs from earlier this year. In the middle of that ugly scene is SunPower (NASDAQ:SPWR), which could formerly claim the title of building the most efficient solar panels in the industry, at 21.5% on the high end. However, that title was recently claimed by the aforementioned SolarCity Corp (NASDAQ:SCTY), a much more popular stock among the investors we track. 34 of those investors held 24.60% of SolarCity’s shares, while 17 investors held just 3.10% of SunPower (NASDAQ:SPWR)’s shares after they fled the stock in the second quarter. Despite shares only declining by about 9% during the second quarter, the aggregate value of hedge funds’ holdings fell by nearly 50% as they yanked capital out of the stock.

The good news for solar stocks is that the worst may now be behind them, which could lead to smart money investors heading back into them for a fourth quarter rally. We recommended buying solar stocks at the end of September, when many of them were at rock-bottom prices, and since then SunPower has gained over 30%, SunEdison is up by more than 11%, and First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ:FSLR) has gained more than 23%. We’ll be watching for the smart money sentiment on SunPower to see if they timed their re-entries as well as they did their exits. Israel Englander and John Murphy each sold off positions in SunPower formerly worth over $10 million during the second quarter.

Another social media company was being cast off by elite money managers in the second quarter. Find out which one on the next page.