What Hedge Funds Think About Ellington Financial LLC (EFC), Which Claims To Be Trading At A 17% Discount To Book Value

How have hedgies been trading Ellington Financial LLC (NYSE:EFC)?

Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Ellington holds the biggest position in Ellington Financial LLC (NYSE:EFC), as previously mentioned. Ellington holds around 2.03 million shares valued at $40.5 million at the end of March, comprising 8.4% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Leon Cooperman of Omega Advisors, with 1.15 million shares worth $22.8 million at the end of the first trimester; the fund has 0.4% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedge funds that are bullish include Andy Redleaf’s Whitebox Advisors, Emanuel J. Friedman’s EJF Capital, and William Michaelcheck‘s Mariner Investment Group.

Even though the number of hedge funds with holdings in Ellington Financial LLC (NYSE:EFC) remained unchanged during the first three months of this year, Trellus Management Company, led by Adam Usdan, opted to say good bye to this stock by selling all of its 10,000 shares of the company during the first quarter. On the other hand, Bernard Selz’s Selz Capital opened up a new position in the stock by buying 100,000 shares valued at $2 million at the end of the first quarter.

From the hedge fund activity on Ellington Financial LLC (NYSE:EFC) during the first quarter, we can see a small pullback in ownership of shares. Given the major downgrade by Zacks and the muted response from the market at Ellington Financial’s counter salvo, we judge sentiment to still be poor on the stock and expect a further dip in share price is coming. As such, we don’t recommend a buy at this time.

Disclosure: None