What have hedge funds been doing with Avon Products, Inc. (NYSE:AVP)?
At Q3’s end, a total of 30 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a 15% quarter-over-quarter increase. According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Yacktman Asset Management, managed by Donald Yacktman, holds the most valuable position in Avon Products, Inc. (NYSE:AVP) as of the end of September. Yacktman Asset Management has a $123.8 million position in the stock. Sitting in second is Gotham Asset Management, managed by Joel Greenblatt, which holds a $34.2 million position; Gotham hiked its stake in Avon by 44% during the third quarter. Other investors with similar optimism encompass Wallace Weitz’s Wallace R. Weitz & Co., Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, and North Run Capital.
As there has been an increase in the stock’s ownership among the firms that we track, key hedge funds have made big moves. North Run Capital, managed by Thomas Ellis and Todd Hammer, assembled the largest position in Avon Products, Inc. (NYSE:AVP), an $11.5 million investment in the company. Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management also made a $6.7 million investment in the stock during the quarter. Other funds with brand new Avon positions are David Costen Haley’s HBK Investments, and Nick Niell’s Arrowgrass Capital Partners.
Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Avon Products, Inc. (NYSE:AVP). We will take a look at Flow International Corporation (NASDAQ:FLOW), Ophthotech Corp (NASDAQ:OPHT), Mpg Office Trust Inc (NYSE:MPG), and Gamco Investors Inc. (NYSE:GBL). This group of stocks’ market values are closest to Avon’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| FLOW | 24 | 172307 | 24 |
| OPHT | 18 | 270288 | -1 |
| MPG | 11 | 100640 | 3 |
| GBL | 11 | 27425 | 2 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 16 hedge funds with long positions and the average amount invested in these stocks by those funds was $143 million. That figure was $246 million in Avon’s case. Flow International Corporation (NASDAQ:FLOW) is the most popular stock in this table with 24 investors, while Mpg Office Trust Inc (NYSE:MPG) is the least popular one with only 11. Compared to these stocks Avon Products, Inc. (NYSE:AVP) is quite a bit more popular among the hedge funds in our database and has more money invested in it than all but one of the other stocks. Considering that hedge funds have continued to support and believe in this brand despite its woes, we believe that there is yet hope for a turnaround for Avon. It will have to wisely make use of its new cash to affect that turnaround however, as it is running out of time.
Disclosure: None
