Starbucks Corporation (SBUX) To Open Roastery in Shanghai as Push Into China Escalates

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Seeing as Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) has faced a declination in interest from hedge fund managers, it’s safe to say that there was a specific group of hedge funds that decided to sell off their entire stakes heading into Q2. Intriguingly, Charles Clough’s Clough Capital Partners dropped the largest position of all the hedgies tracked by Insider Monkey, totaling an estimated $33.2 million in stock. Gabriel Plotkin’s fund, Melvin Capital Management, also sold off its stock, about $31.5 million worth. These transactions are interesting, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 9 funds heading into Q2.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) but similarly valued. These stocks are Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE:HON), Royal Bank of Canada (USA) (NYSE:RY), The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA), and United Technologies Corporation (NYSE:UTX). All of these stocks’ market caps are closest to SBUX’s market cap.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
HON 55 1838918 6
RY 16 358778 -1
BA 37 1020550 -5
UTX 51 3814154 7

As you can see these stocks had an average of 40 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1.76 billion. That figure was $1.52 billion in SBUX’s case. Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE:HON) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Royal Bank of Canada (USA) (NYSE:RY) is the least popular one with only 16 bullish hedge fund positions. Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) 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 HON might be a better candidate to consider a long position.

Disclosure: None

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