Hedge Funds Are Betting On Par Pacific Holdings, Inc. (PARR)

We can judge whether Par Pacific Holdings, Inc. (NYSEMKT:PARR) is a good investment right now by following the lead of some of the best investors in the world and piggybacking their ideas. There’s no better way to get these firms’ immense resources and analytical capabilities working for us than to follow their lead into their best ideas. While not all of these picks will be winners, our research shows that these picks historically outperformed the market when we factor in known risk factors.

Par Pacific Holdings, Inc. (NYSEMKT:PARR) investors should pay attention to an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds of late. PARR was in 15 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. There were 14 hedge funds in our database with PARR holdings at the end of the previous quarter. Our calculations also showed that PARR isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings and see the video below for Q2 rankings).
5 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds
Video: Click the image to watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.

Today there are numerous signals investors can use to value their stock investments. A couple of the less known signals are hedge fund and insider trading interest. Our experts have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top hedge fund managers can beat their index-focused peers by a solid amount (see the details here).

RENAISSANCE TECHNOLOGIES

Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies

We leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example Europe is set to become the world’s largest cannabis market, so we check out this European marijuana stock pitch. One of the most bullish analysts in America just put his money where his mouth is. He says, “I’m investing more today than I did back in early 2009.” So we check out his pitch. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. We also rely on the best performing hedge funds‘ buy/sell signals. We’re going to view the fresh hedge fund action encompassing Par Pacific Holdings, Inc. (NYSEMKT:PARR).

Hedge fund activity in Par Pacific Holdings, Inc. (NYSEMKT:PARR)

At the end of the third quarter, a total of 15 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 7% from the second quarter of 2019. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards PARR over the last 17 quarters. So, let’s review which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

Is PARR A Good Stock To Buy?

Among these funds, Renaissance Technologies held the most valuable stake in Par Pacific Holdings, Inc. (NYSEMKT:PARR), which was worth $39.2 million at the end of the third quarter. On the second spot was Park West Asset Management which amassed $27.7 million worth of shares. Birch Run Capital, Whitebox Advisors, and Winton Capital Management were also very fond of the stock, becoming one of the largest hedge fund holders of the company. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Birch Run Capital allocated the biggest weight to Par Pacific Holdings, Inc. (NYSEMKT:PARR), around 5.38% of its 13F portfolio. Park West Asset Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, dishing out 1.35 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to PARR.

As one would reasonably expect, key hedge funds have jumped into Par Pacific Holdings, Inc. (NYSEMKT:PARR) headfirst. Arrowstreet Capital, managed by Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell, created the largest position in Par Pacific Holdings, Inc. (NYSEMKT:PARR). Arrowstreet Capital had $2.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Louis Navellier’s Navellier & Associates also made a $0.8 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new PARR investors: Minhua Zhang’s Weld Capital Management, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, and Gavin Saitowitz and Cisco J. del Valle’s Springbok Capital.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Par Pacific Holdings, Inc. (NYSEMKT:PARR). We will take a look at Delphi Automotive PLC (NYSE:DLPH), Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CCO), FB Financial Corporation (NYSE:FBK), and Schweitzer-Mauduit International, Inc. (NYSE:SWM). This group of stocks’ market values are closest to PARR’s market value.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
DLPH 19 195756 -6
CCO 43 334472 11
FBK 7 80971 3
SWM 8 28250 -2
Average 19.25 159862 1.5

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 19.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $160 million. That figure was $107 million in PARR’s case. Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CCO) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand FB Financial Corporation (NYSE:FBK) is the least popular one with only 7 bullish hedge fund positions. Par Pacific Holdings, Inc. (NYSEMKT:PARR) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our calculations showed that top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 37.4% in 2019 through the end of November and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 9.9 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on PARR, though not to the same extent, as the stock returned 8.9% during the first two months of the fourth quarter and outperformed the market.

Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.