3 Stocks Hedge Funds Were Snapping Up During the Crash

Page 1 of 2

In a new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, William B. Gray’s Orbis Investment Management Ltd disclosed ownership of 3.46 million shares of NOW Inc (NYSE:DNOW), a 3.23% stake in the company. In this article, we’ll dig into this filing, as well as the latest filings from Red Alder GP LLC and Woodford Investment Management.

Alaska Oil Pipeline stocks WMB KMI EPD ETP SLX ENB

Jonathan Nafzger / shutterstock.com

We track the latest moves of hedge funds to learn about their investment patterns. We mainly focus on the fund’s top 15 small-cap stocks. We gather and share this information based on 16 years of research which showed that these 15 most popular small-cap picks have great potential to outperform the market, beating the S&P 500 Total Return Index by nearly one percentage point per month in backtests, and easily beating the most popular large-cap picks of funds, which nonetheless get the majority of their collective capital. Why pay fees to invest in both the best and worst ideas of a particular hedge fund when you can simply mimic only the very best ideas of the best fund managers on your own? Since the beginning of forward testing in August 2012, the Insider Monkey small-cap strategy has outperformed the market every year, returning 102%, over two-times greater returns than the S&P 500 during the same period (see more details).

Orbis is a relatively large fund with offices in many big cities such as London, Hong Kong, and Sydney. Orbis Investment’s umbrella of funds utilizes a variety of strategies, but for the most part, they are long-term investors. The fund’s public equity portfolio was worth over $13 billion at the end of June, and mainly consisted of Technology, Services, and Basic Materials stocks.

Follow William B. Gray's Orbis Investment Management

Let’s get back to Orbis Investment’s filing on NOW Inc (NYSE:DNOW). The fund’s disclosed stake represents a massive decrease from the 9.84 million shares that it held at the end of June. Orbis initiated a position in NOW Inc during the second quarter of 2014, when the company went public after being spun-off from National-Oilwell Varco, Inc. (NYSE:NOV). At the end of last year, the fund disclosed increasing its position in the company to 10.72 million shares.

Texas-based NOW Inc (NYSE:DNOW) is engaged in the distribution of oil and gas products in the U.S, Canada, and other countries. It has a market cap of nearly $2.0 billion. The company’s shares are showing some improvement, increasing by nearly 9% during the last 30 days. However, the stock has still lost 32.88% year-to-date. Another investor that sees value in NOW Inc is First Eagle Investment Management, which holds 8.53 million shares of the company.

Follow Dnow Inc. (NYSE:DNOW)

On the next page, you’ll learn about the stock in which Red Alder GP reported an ownership stake of over 5%.

Page 1 of 2