The 700+ hedge funds and money managers tracked by Insider Monkey have already compiled and submitted their 13F filings for the third quarter, which unveil their equity positions as of September 30. We went through these filings, fixed typos and other more significant errors and identified the changes in hedge fund positions. Our extensive review of these public filings is finally over, so this article is set to reveal the smart money sentiment towards Atlantica Yield PLC (NASDAQ:ABY).
Among the funds in our database, 13 funds held shares of Atlantica Yield at the end of September as the stock registered a slight increase in popularity over the last quarter. At the end of this article we will also compare ABY to other stocks including Grand Canyon Education Inc (NASDAQ:LOPE), Rowan Companies PLC (NYSE:RDC), and Masonite International Corp (NYSE:DOOR) to get a better sense of its popularity.
We follow over 700 hedge funds and other institutional investors and by analyzing their quarterly 13F filings, we identify stocks that they are collectively bullish on and develop investment strategies based on this data. One strategy that outperformed the market over the last year involves selecting the 100 best-performing funds and identifying the 30 mid-cap stocks that they are collectively most bullish on. Over the past year, this strategy generated returns of 18%, topping the 8% gain registered by S&P 500 ETFs. We launched this strategy 2.5 years ago and it returned more than 39% since then, vs. 22% gain registered by the S&P 500 ETFs.
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Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a gander at the new action encompassing Atlantica Yield PLC (NASDAQ:ABY).
What have hedge funds been doing with Atlantica Yield PLC (NASDAQ:ABY)?
At Q3’s end, 13 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, up by one fund from the second quarter of 2016. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in ABY over the last five quarters. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).
Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Appaloosa Management LP, led by David Tepper, holds the number one position in Atlantica Yield PLC (NASDAQ:ABY). Appaloosa Management LP has a $114.2 million position in the stock, comprising 2.6% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Mark T. Gallogly of Centerbridge Partners, with a $62.2 million position; 5.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining hedge funds and institutional investors with similar optimism comprise Doug Silverman and Alexander Klabin’s Senator Investment Group, Michael Lowenstein’s Kensico Capital, and Richard Barrera’s Roystone Capital Partners. We should note that none of these hedge funds are 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, key hedge funds were leading the bulls’ herd. Southpoint Capital Advisors, led by John Smith Clark, assembled the most outsized position in Atlantica Yield PLC (NASDAQ:ABY). Southpoint Capital Advisors had $14.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. David Halpert’s Prince Street Capital Management also initiated a $4.3 million position during the quarter. The only other fund with a brand new ABY position is George Hall’s Clinton Group.
Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Atlantica Yield PLC (NASDAQ:ABY). These stocks are Grand Canyon Education Inc (NASDAQ:LOPE), Rowan Companies PLC (NYSE:RDC), Masonite International Corp (NYSE:DOOR), and CVB Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:CVBF). All of these stocks’ market caps resemble ABY’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| LOPE | 19 | 133360 | 0 |
| RDC | 26 | 412625 | 2 |
| DOOR | 21 | 339628 | -6 |
| CVBF | 7 | 5253 | 7 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 18 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $223 million. That figure was $385 million in ABY’s case. Rowan Companies PLC (NYSE:RDC) is the most popular stock in this table, while CVB Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:CVBF) is the least popular one with only seven funds holding shares. Atlantica Yield PLC (NASDAQ:ABY) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard RDC might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.
Disclosure: none
