Do Hedge Funds Love Aegean Marine Petroleum Network Inc. (ANW)?

Billionaire hedge fund managers such as Steve Cohen and Stan Druckenmiller can generate millions or even billions of dollars every year by pinning down high-potential small-cap stocks and pouring cash into these candidates. Small-cap stocks are overlooked by most investors, brokerage houses, and financial services hubs, while the unlimited research abilities of the big players within the hedge fund industry can easily identify the undervalued and high-potential stocks that reside the ignored corners of equity markets. There are numerous small-cap stocks that have turned out to be great winners, which is one of the main reasons the Insider Monkey team pays close attention to the hedge fund activity in relation to these stocks.

In this article we will analyze the latest hedge fund activity surrounding Aegean Marine Petroleum Network Inc. (NYSE:ANW). Overall, the stock’s popularity remained unchanged last quarter. This is usually a negative indicator. However, the level and the change in hedge fund popularity aren’t the only variables you need to analyze to decipher hedge funds’ perspectives. A stock may witness a boost in popularity but it may still be less popular than similarly priced stocks. That’s why at the end of this article we will examine companies such as City Office REIT Inc (NYSE:CIO), PennyMac Financial Services Inc (NYSE:PFSI), and Heritage-Crystal Clean, Inc. (NASDAQ:HCCI) to gather more data points.

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At Insider Monkey, we’ve developed an investment strategy that has delivered market-beating returns over the past 12 months. Our strategy identifies the 100 best-performing funds of the previous quarter from among the collection of 700+ successful funds that we track in our database, which we accomplish using our returns methodology. We then study the portfolios of those 100 funds using the latest 13F data to uncover the 30 most popular mid-cap stocks (market caps of between $1 billion and $10 billion) among them to hold until the next filing period. This strategy delivered 18% gains over the past 12 months, more than doubling the 8% returns enjoyed by the S&P 500 ETFs.

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With all of this in mind, we’re going to take a look at the new action regarding Aegean Marine Petroleum Network Inc. (NYSE:ANW).

How have hedgies been trading Aegean Marine Petroleum Network Inc. (NYSE:ANW)?

At the end of September, a total of 16 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long Aegean Marine Petroleum Network, unchanged over the quarter. By comparison, 17 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in ANW heading into 2016. So, let’s check out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

HedgeFundSentimentChart

When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Richard Mashaal’s Rima Senvest Management has the largest position in Aegean Marine Petroleum Network Inc. (NYSE:ANW), worth close to $45.1 million, corresponding to 3.2% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Trafelet Capital, led by Remy Trafelet, which holds a $24.4 million position; 18.5% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining hedge funds and institutional investors that hold long positions encompass Kenneth Tropin’s Graham Capital Management, David E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, and William C. Martin’s Raging Capital Management. We should note that Raging Capital Management is among our list of the 100 best performing hedge funds which is based on the performance of their 13F long positions in non-microcap stocks.

Now that we’ve mentioned the most bullish investors, let’s also take a look at some funds that got rid of their entire stakes in the stock during the third quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Matthew Taylor and Ty Popplewell’s Kortright Capital Partners got rid of the biggest position of the “upper crust” of funds watched by Insider Monkey, comprising an estimated $1.7 million in stock, and William Charters and Mario Marcon’s Sabal Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund cut about $1.2 million worth of shares.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Aegean Marine Petroleum Network Inc. (NYSE:ANW). These stocks are City Office REIT Inc (NYSE:CIO), PennyMac Financial Services Inc (NYSE:PFSI), Heritage-Crystal Clean, Inc. (NASDAQ:HCCI), and Community Healthcare Trust Inc (NYSE:CHCT). All of these stocks’ market caps resemble ANW’s market cap.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
CIO 6 21075 1
PFSI 13 110773 1
HCCI 6 50196 2
CHCT 9 27828 0

As you can see these stocks had an average of nine funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $52 million. That figure was $106 million in ANW’s case. PennyMac Financial Services Inc (NYSE:PFSI) is the most popular stock in this table, while City Office REIT Inc (NYSE:CIO) is the least popular one with only six investors holding shares. Compared to these stocks Aegean Marine Petroleum Network Inc. (NYSE:ANW) is more popular among hedge funds. Considering that hedge funds are fond of this stock in relation to its market cap peers, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and potentially include it in your portfolio.

Disclosure: none