Hedge Funds Are Crazy About Las Vegas Sands Corp. (LVS)

Page 2 of 2

Now, key hedge funds were leading the bulls’ herd. Laurion Capital Management, managed by Benjamin A. Smith, assembled the most valuable position in Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS). Laurion Capital Management had $7.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Steven Boyd’s Armistice Capital also initiated a $7.2 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new LVS positions are Peter Muller’s PDT Partners, Paul Orlin and Alex Porter’s Amici Capital, and Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS) but similarly valued. These stocks are Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL), Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE:ITW), Liberty Global PLC LiLAC Class C (NASDAQ:LILAK), and Valero Energy Corporation (NYSE:VLO). This group of stocks’ market valuations are similar to LVS’s market valuation.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
HAL 59 3773834 -10
ITW 31 934514 -7
LILAK 40 406793 40
VLO 56 1842981 8

As you can see these stocks had an average of 47 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1.74 billion. That figure was $261 million in LVS’s case. Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE:ITW) is the least popular one with only 31 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS) is even less popular than ITW. Considering that hedge funds aren’t fond of this stock in relation to other companies mentioned in this article, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and understand why the smart money isn’t behind this stock. This isn’t necessarily bad news. Although it is possible that hedge funds may think the stock is overpriced and view the stock as a short candidate, they may not be very familiar with the bullish thesis. In either case more research is warranted.

Page 2 of 2