Hedge funds and other investment firms that we track manage billions of dollars of their wealthy clients’ money, and needless to say, they are painstakingly thorough when analyzing where to invest this money, as their own wealth depends on it. Regardless of the various methods used by elite investors like David Tepper and Dan Loeb, the resources they expend are second-to-none. This is especially valuable when it comes to small-cap stocks, which is where they generate their strongest outperformance, as their resources give them a huge edge when it comes to studying these stocks compared to the average investor, which is why we intently follow their activity in the small-cap space.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (ADR) (NYSE:MTU) has experienced a decrease in support from the world’s most elite money managers of late. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc was in 12 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2015. There were 14 hedge funds in our database with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc holdings at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of this article we will also compare Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc to other stocks including QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM), Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX), and Vodafone Group Plc (ADR) (NASDAQ:VOD) to get a better sense of its popularity.
Follow Mitsubishi Ufj Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:MUFG)
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According to most shareholders, hedge funds are viewed as slow, outdated financial tools of years past. While there are greater than 8,000 funds trading at present, our experts hone in on the leaders of this club, around 700 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group of people orchestrate the lion’s share of the hedge fund industry’s total asset base, and by paying attention to their best stock picks, Insider Monkey has unearthed many investment strategies that have historically outperformed the broader indices. Insider Monkey’s small-cap hedge fund strategy defeated the S&P 500 index by 12 percentage points a year for a decade in their back tests.
Now, we’re going to check out the new action encompassing Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (ADR) (NYSE:MTU).
What have hedge funds been doing with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (ADR) (NYSE:MTU)?
At the end of the third quarter, a total of 12 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a 14% dip from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings substantially (or had already accumulated large positions).
According to Insider Monkey’s hedge fund database, Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management has the biggest position in Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (ADR) (NYSE:MTU), worth close to $39.1 million, amounting to 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. The second-largest stake is held by Masters Capital Management, led by Mike Masters, holding a $17.4 million position; the fund has 0.6% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining professional money managers that are bullish include Renaissance Technologies, D E Shaw, and J. Alan Reid, Jr.’s Forward Management.
Since Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (ADR) (NYSE:MTU) has experienced falling interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, logic holds that there lies a certain “tier” of fund managers who were dropping their entire stakes in the third quarter. Interestingly, Kevin D. Eng’s Columbus Hill Capital Management dropped the largest position of all the hedgies monitored by Insider Monkey, comprising about $3.6 million in stock, and Mike Vranos’ Ellington was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $0.2 million worth of shares. These moves are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 2 funds in the third quarter.
Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (ADR) (NYSE:MTU). These stocks are QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM), Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX), Vodafone Group Plc (ADR) (NASDAQ:VOD), and GlaxoSmithKline plc (ADR) (NYSE:GSK). This group of stocks’ market values match Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| QCOM | 68 | 6151514 | -1 |
| SBUX | 54 | 1716424 | 8 |
| VOD | 27 | 744292 | -7 |
| GSK | 35 | 1019596 | 2 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 46 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $2.41 billion. That figure was just $90 million in Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc’s case. QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Vodafone Group Plc (ADR) (NASDAQ:VOD) is the least popular one with only 27 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (ADR) (NYSE:MTU) is far less popular than even Vodafone. Considering that hedge funds aren’t at all fond of this stock in relation to other companies analyzed in this article, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and understand why the smart money isn’t behind this stock.
