Our extensive research has shown that imitating the smart money can generate significant returns for retail investors, which is why we track more than 700 prominent money managers and analyze their quarterly 13F filings. The stocks that are heavily bought by hedge funds historically outperformed the market, though there is no shortage of high profile gigantic failures like hedge funds’ recent losses in Valeant. Let’s take a closer look at what the funds we track think about Splunk Inc (NASDAQ:SPLK) in this article.
Splunk Inc (NASDAQ:SPLK) shares haven’t seen a lot of action during the third quarter. Overall, hedge fund sentiment was unchanged. The stock was in 23 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2015. At the end of this article we will also compare SPLK to other stocks including Pinnacle West Capital Corporation (NYSE:PNW), Aramark (NYSE:ARMK), and DENTSPLY International Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY) to get a better sense of its popularity.
Follow Splunk Inc (NASDAQ:SPLK)
Follow Splunk Inc (NASDAQ:SPLK)
Now, we’re going to take a look at the new action regarding Splunk Inc (NASDAQ:SPLK).
Hedge fund activity in Splunk Inc (NASDAQ:SPLK)
According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Criterion Capital, managed by Christopher Lord, holds the number one position in Splunk Inc (NASDAQ:SPLK). Criterion Capital has a $92.8 million position in the stock, comprising 3.2% of its 13F portfolio. The second most bullish fund manager is Columbus Circle Investors, which holds a $77.2 million position; the fund has 0.6% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other professional money managers that hold long positions consist of Chase Coleman’s Tiger Global Management LLC, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and Brian Ashford-Russell and Tim Woolley’s Polar Capital.
At the top of the heap, John Burbank’s Passport Capital dropped the biggest position of all the hedgies tracked by Insider Monkey, totaling an estimated $54.1 million in call options, and Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $19.1 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).
Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Splunk Inc (NASDAQ:SPLK) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Pinnacle West Capital Corporation (NYSE:PNW), Aramark (NYSE:ARMK), DENTSPLY International Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY), and The WhiteWave Foods Co (NYSE:WWAV). This group of stocks’ market caps are similar to SPLK’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| PNW | 18 | 424386 | -6 |
| ARMK | 53 | 2684913 | 12 |
| XRAY | 29 | 807345 | 8 |
| WWAV | 33 | 690741 | 3 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 33.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1152 million. That figure was $396 million in SPLK’s case. Aramark (NYSE:ARMK) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Pinnacle West Capital Corporation (NYSE:PNW) is the least popular one with only 18 bullish hedge fund positions. Splunk Inc (NASDAQ:SPLK) 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 ARMK might be a better candidate to consider a long position.
