Here’s Why Sanderson Farms, Inc. (SAFM)’s Stock Is on the Move Today

Sanderson Farms, Inc. (NASDAQ:SAFM)’s stock is on the move today after it posted second quarter EPS of $2.11, dwarfing the estimates of $1.62. Revenue for the quarter came in at $692.1, better than the expected $671.61 million. Joe F. Sanderson, Jr., Chairman and CEO of the Mississippi based poultry processing company, said that lower grain costs, increasing demand of poultry products at grocery stores, higher volume, and an improving export environment gave a boost to the company in the quarter. He said that the company is constructing a new hatchery, processing plant and waste water treatment facility in St. Pauls, North Carolina, which will be operational till the first fiscal quarter of 2017.

Sanderson Farms, Inc. (NASDAQ:SAFM) investors should pay attention to an increase in enthusiasm from smart money in recent months. SAFM was in 15 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of March. There were 13 hedge funds in our database with SAFM holdings at the end of the previous quarter. 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 DiamondRock Hospitality Company (NYSE:DRH), CBL & Associates Properties, Inc. (NYSE:CBL), and United Natural Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ:UNFI) to gather more data points.

In the eyes of most market participants, hedge funds are assumed to be slow, outdated investment tools of years past. While there are greater than 8000 funds trading at the moment, Our researchers choose to focus on the masters of this club, around 700 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group of people preside over bulk of the smart money’s total capital, and by watching their inimitable picks, Insider Monkey has unsheathed several investment strategies that have historically outrun the S&P 500 index. Insider Monkey’s small-cap hedge fund strategy defeated the S&P 500 index by 12 percentage points a year for a decade in their back tests.

When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital has the largest position in Sanderson Farms, Inc. (NASDAQ:SAFM), worth close to $33 million, corresponding to 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. On Arrowstreet Capital’s heels is Blue Mountain Capital, led by Andrew Feldstein and Stephen Siderow, holding a $32.3 million position; the fund has 0.7% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedge funds and institutional investors that hold long positions encompass Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies and David E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.

On the next page, we are going to look at some investors that added Sanderson Farms to their equity portfolios during the first three months of 2016.