Hedge Funds Are Betting On Century Communities, Inc (CCS)

How do we determine whether Century Communities, Inc (NYSE:CCS) makes for a good investment at the moment? We analyze the sentiment of a select group of the very best investors in the world, who spend immense amounts of time and resources studying companies. They may not always be right (no one is), but data shows that their consensus long positions have historically outperformed the market when we adjust for known risk factors.

Century Communities, Inc (NYSE:CCS) was in 18 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2015. CCS investors should pay attention to an increase in enthusiasm from smart money recently. There were 13 hedge funds in our database with CCS positions at the end of the previous quarter. 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 Patriot National Inc (NYSE:PN), Carrols Restaurant Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TAST), and Intrepid Potash, Inc. (NYSE:IPI) to gather more data points.

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According to most traders, hedge funds are perceived as underperforming, old financial tools of yesteryear. While there are more than an 8000 funds in operation at the moment, Our researchers hone in on the top tier of this club, approximately 700 funds. These money managers shepherd bulk of the smart money’s total asset base, and by keeping an eye on their matchless picks, Insider Monkey has unsheathed many investment strategies that have historically defeated the broader indices. Insider Monkey’s small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed the S&P 500 index by 12 percentage points per year for a decade in their back tests.

With all of this in mind, we’re going to check out the fresh action regarding Century Communities, Inc (NYSE:CCS).

How are hedge funds trading Century Communities, Inc (NYSE:CCS)?

Heading into Q4, a total of 18 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 38% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes substantially (or already accumulated large positions).

According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Howard Marks’ Oaktree Capital Management has the largest position in Century Communities, Inc (NYSE:CCS), worth close to $24.4 million, corresponding to 0.3% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is BHR Capital, led by Michael Thompson, holding a $13 million position; the fund has 1.9% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other peers that are bullish encompass Michael Platt and William Reeves’ BlueCrest Capital Mgmt., Ken Heebner’s Capital Growth Management and Ken Brodkowitz and Mike Vermut’s Newland Capital.

As aggregate interest increased, key money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. KeyPoint Capital Management, managed by Rod Hinze, created the most outsized position in Century Communities, Inc (NYSE:CCS). KeyPoint Capital Management had $2.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Peter Muller’s PDT Partners also initiated a $0.5 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new CCS investors: Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Richard Driehaus’ Driehaus Capital, and Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Century Communities, Inc (NYSE:CCS) but similarly valued. These stocks are Patriot National Inc (NYSE:PN), Carrols Restaurant Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TAST), Intrepid Potash, Inc. (NYSE:IPI), and Homeowners Choice Inc (NYSE:HCI). All of these stocks’ market caps resemble CCS’s market cap.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
PN 6 25270 0
TAST 25 120632 6
IPI 13 26433 -2
HCI 9 7162 -2

As you can see these stocks had an average of 13 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $45 million, lower than the $79 million figure in CCS’s case. Carrols Restaurant Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TAST) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Patriot National Inc (NYSE:PN) is the least popular one with only 6 bullish hedge fund positions. Century Communities, Inc (NYSE:CCS) is not the most popular stock in this group, but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal, but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard TAST might be a better candidate to consider a long position.