Should You Invest In Molson Coors Brewing Co (TAP)?

Is Molson Coors Brewing Co (NYSE:TAP) a good equity to bet on right now? We like to check what the smart money thinks first before doing extensive research. Although there have been several high profile failed hedge fund picks, the consensus picks among hedge fund investors have historically outperformed the market after adjusting for known risk attributes. It’s not surprising given that hedge funds have access to better information and more resources to find the latest market-moving information.

Molson Coors Brewing Co (NYSE:TAP) has experienced an increase in hedge fund sentiment recently. TAP was in 59 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. There were 57 hedge funds in our database with TAP holdings at the end of the previous quarter. However, 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 Ingersoll-Rand PLC (NYSE:IR), American Airlines Group Inc (NASDAQ:AAL), and Rogers Communications Inc. (USA) (NYSE:RCI) to gather more data points.

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.

Hedge fund activity in Molson Coors Brewing Co (NYSE:TAP)

Heading into the fourth quarter of 2016, 59 funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, an increase of 4% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings substantially (or already accumulated large positions).

Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, holds the biggest position in Molson Coors Brewing Co (NYSE:TAP). Citadel Investment Group has a $265.1 million position in the stock. The second largest stake is held by Third Point, led by Dan Loeb, holding a $186.7 million position; 1.6% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other hedge funds and institutional investors that are bullish consist of Alan Fournier’s Pennant Capital Management and Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management.

As aggregate interest increased, some big names were leading the bulls’ herd. Scopus Asset Management, led by Alexander Mitchell, initiated the most outsized call position in Molson Coors Brewing Co (NYSE:TAP). Scopus Asset Management had $153.7 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Anand Parekh’s Alyeska Investment Group also made a $81.6 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new TAP positions are Alan Fournier’s Pennant Capital Management, Carl Tiedemann and Michael Tiedemann’s TIG Advisors, and Curtis Macnguyen’s Ivory Capital (Investment Mgmt).

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Molson Coors Brewing Co (NYSE:TAP). We will take a look at Ingersoll-Rand PLC (NYSE:IR), American Airlines Group Inc (NASDAQ:AAL), Rogers Communications Inc. (USA) (NYSE:RCI), and Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB). This group of stocks’ market values are closest to TAP’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 41 investors holding shares at the end of September and the average amount invested in these stocks was $2.03 billion. That figure was $3.40 billion in TAP’s case. Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) is the most popular stock in this table with 66 funds reporting long positions. On the other hand Rogers Communications Inc. (USA) (NYSE:RCI) is the least popular one with only 14 bullish hedge fund positions. Molson Coors Brewing Co (NYSE:TAP) is not the most popular stock in this group, but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) might be a better candidate to consider a long position.

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Disclosure: None