Is Zayo Group Holdings Inc (ZAYO) A Good Stock To Buy?

Hedge funds and other investment firms run by legendary investors like Israel Englander and Ray Dalio are entrusted to manage billions of dollars of accredited investors’ money because they are without peer in the resources they use to identify the best investments for their chosen investment horizon. Moreover, they are more willing to invest a greater amount of their resources in small-cap stocks than big brokerage houses, and this is often where they generate their outperformance, which is why we pay particular attention to their best ideas in this space.

Zayo Group Holdings Inc (NYSE:ZAYO) has seen an increase in hedge fund sentiment in recent months. ZAYO was in 50 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. There were 41 hedge funds in our database with ZAYO positions at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of this article we will also compare ZAYO to other stocks including Ashland Inc. (NYSE:ASH), STMicroelectronics N.V. (ADR) (NYSE:STM), and Apollo Global Management LLC (NYSE:APO) to get a better sense of its popularity.

Follow Zayo Group Holdings Inc. (NYSE:ZAYO)

At Insider Monkey, we’ve developed an investment strategy that has delivered market-beating returns over the past 12 months. Our strategy identifies the 100 best-performing funds of the previous quarter from among the collection of 700+ successful funds that we track in our database, which we accomplish using our returns methodology. We then study the portfolios of those 100 funds using the latest 13F data to uncover the 30 most popular mid-cap stocks (market caps of between $1 billion and $10 billion) among them to hold until the next filing period. This strategy delivered 18% gains over the past 12 months, more than doubling the 8% returns enjoyed by the S&P 500 ETFs.

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Keeping this in mind, let’s check out the latest action regarding Zayo Group Holdings Inc (NYSE:ZAYO).

What have hedge funds been doing with Zayo Group Holdings Inc (NYSE:ZAYO)?

At Q3’s end, a total of 50 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a jump of 22% from one quarter earlier. On the other hand, there were a total of 39 hedge funds with a bullish position in ZAYO at the beginning of this year. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).
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When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, John H. Scully’s SPO Advisory Corp has the biggest position in Zayo Group Holdings Inc (NYSE:ZAYO), worth close to $320.9 million, amounting to 5.6% of its total 13F portfolio. The second most bullish fund manager is Israel Englander of Millennium Management, with a $213.3 million position; the fund has 0.4% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other peers that are bullish encompass Doug Silverman and Alexander Klabin’s Senator Investment Group, Eric Bannasch’s Cadian Capital and Stuart J. Zimmer’s Zimmer Partners. We should note that two of these hedge funds (SPO Advisory Corp and Zimmer Partners) are among our list of the 100 best performing hedge funds which is based on the performance of their 13F long positions in non-microcap stocks.

Now, some big names were leading the bulls’ herd. Senator Investment Group, led by Doug Silverman and Alexander Klabin, initiated the most valuable position in Zayo Group Holdings Inc (NYSE:ZAYO). According to regulatory filings, the fund had $172.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Philippe Laffont’s Coatue Management also initiated a $64.8 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Christopher James’s Partner Fund Management, Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management, and Louis Bacon’s Moore Global Investments.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Zayo Group Holdings Inc (NYSE:ZAYO). We will take a look at Ashland Inc. (NYSE:ASH), STMicroelectronics N.V. (ADR) (NYSE:STM), Apollo Global Management LLC (NYSE:APO), and Apartment Investment and Management Co. (NYSE:AIV). This group of stocks’ market caps are similar to ZAYO’s market cap.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
ASH 30 726535 4
STM 11 110021 4
APO 21 272595 3
AIV 16 164712 -4

As you can see these stocks had an average of 20 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $318 million. That figure was a whooping $2.13 billion in ZAYO’s case. Ashland Inc. (NYSE:ASH) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand STMicroelectronics N.V. (ADR) (NYSE:STM) is the least popular one with only 11 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Zayo Group Holdings Inc (NYSE:ZAYO) is more popular among hedge funds. Considering that hedge funds are fond of this stock in relation to its market cap peers, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and potentially include it in your portfolio.

Disclosure: none.