Investing in small cap stocks has historically been a way to outperform the market, as small cap companies typically grow faster on average than the blue chips. That outperformance comes with a price, however, as there are occasional periods of higher volatility. The time period between June 25 and the end of October was one of those periods, as the Russell 2000 ETF (IWM) has underperformed the larger S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by more than 14 percentage points. Given that the funds we track tend to have a disproportionate amount of their portfolios in smaller cap stocks, they have seen some volatility in their portfolios too. Actually, their moves are potentially one of the factors that contributed to this volatility. In this article, we use our extensive database of hedge fund holdings to find out what the smart money thinks of U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB).
Hedge fund interest in U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) shares was flat at the end of last quarter. This is usually a negative indicator. At the end of this article, we will also compare U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) to other stocks, including UBS Group AG (USA) (NYSE:UBS), Biogen Inc. (NASDAQ:BIIB), and Mondelez International Inc (NASDAQ:MDLZ) to get a better sense of its popularity.
Follow Us Bancorp (NYSE:USB)
Follow Us Bancorp (NYSE:USB)
To the average investor, there are a lot of indicators market participants put to use to appraise stocks. A couple of the most useful indicators are hedge fund and insider trading indicators. Our experts have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite fund managers can trounce the market by a solid margin (see the details here).
With all of this in mind, let’s take a peek at the latest action encompassing U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB).
How have hedgies been trading U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB)?
At the end of the third quarter, a total of 43 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, unchanged from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings significantly (or already accumulated large positions).
According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Berkshire Hathaway has the biggest position in U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB), worth close to $3.49 billion, corresponding to 2.7% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Donald Yacktman of Yacktman Asset Management, with a $364 million position; 2.4% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other members of the smart money with similar optimism include Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management, Ross Margolies’ Stelliam Investment Management, and Cliff Asness’ AQR Capital Management.
