Hedge Funds Are Buying Janus Henderson Group plc (JHG)

The latest 13F reporting period has come and gone, and Insider Monkey is again at the forefront when it comes to making use of this gold mine of data. We have processed the filings of the more than 866 world-class investment firms that we track and now have access to the collective wisdom contained in these filings, which are based on their March 31st holdings, data that is available nowhere else. Should you consider Janus Henderson Group plc (NYSE:JHG) for your portfolio? We’ll look to this invaluable collective wisdom for the answer.

Janus Henderson Group plc (NYSE:JHG) was in 28 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of March. The all time high for this statistic is 30. JHG has experienced an increase in hedge fund sentiment in recent months. There were 22 hedge funds in our database with JHG holdings at the end of December. Our calculations also showed that JHG isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings).

Hedge funds’ reputation as shrewd investors has been tarnished in the last decade as their hedged returns couldn’t keep up with the unhedged returns of the market indices. Our research has shown that hedge funds’ small-cap stock picks managed to beat the market by double digits annually between 1999 and 2016, but the margin of outperformance has been declining in recent years. Nevertheless, we were still able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by 115 percentage points since March 2017 (see the details here). We were also able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that underperformed the market by 10 percentage points annually between 2006 and 2017. Interestingly the margin of underperformance of these stocks has been increasing in recent years. Investors who are long the market and short these stocks would have returned more than 27% annually between 2015 and 2017. We have been tracking and sharing the list of these stocks since February 2017 in our quarterly newsletter.

At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, economists warn of inflation flare up. So, we are checking out this backdoor gold play that has hit peak gains of 718% in a little over a year. We go through lists like the 10 best battery stocks to pick the next Tesla that will deliver a 10x return. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. You can subscribe to our free daily newsletter on our homepage. With all of this in mind let’s analyze the fresh hedge fund action regarding Janus Henderson Group plc (NYSE:JHG).

Do Hedge Funds Think JHG Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?

At the end of March, a total of 28 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 27% from one quarter earlier. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in JHG over the last 23 quarters. So, let’s examine which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

According to Insider Monkey’s hedge fund database, Trian Partners, managed by Nelson Peltz, holds the biggest position in Janus Henderson Group plc (NYSE:JHG). Trian Partners has a $509.8 million position in the stock, comprising 6% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Ariel Investments, managed by John W. Rogers, which holds a $114.8 million position; 1.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other professional money managers that are bullish encompass Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Trian Partners allocated the biggest weight to Janus Henderson Group plc (NYSE:JHG), around 6.03% of its 13F portfolio. Sirios Capital Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 1.41 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to JHG.

Consequently, specific money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Marshall Wace LLP, managed by Paul Marshall and Ian Wace, established the biggest position in Janus Henderson Group plc (NYSE:JHG). Marshall Wace LLP had $24.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Louis Bacon’s Moore Global Investments also initiated a $20.6 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are John Brennan’s Sirios Capital Management, Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, and Frank Fu’s CaaS Capital.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Janus Henderson Group plc (NYSE:JHG). These stocks are Essent Group Ltd (NYSE:ESNT), 1Life Healthcare, Inc. (NASDAQ:ONEM), Stag Industrial Inc (NYSE:STAG), Cousins Properties Incorporated (NYSE:CUZ), Schrodinger, Inc. (NASDAQ:SDGR), ACV Auctions Inc. (NASDAQ:ACVA), and Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste (NYSE:ASR). This group of stocks’ market valuations resemble JHG’s market valuation.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 19.6 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $352 million. That figure was $917 million in JHG’s case. 1Life Healthcare, Inc. (NASDAQ:ONEM) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste (NYSE:ASR) is the least popular one with only 8 bullish hedge fund positions. Janus Henderson Group plc (NYSE:JHG) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for JHG is 83.5. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. Our calculations showed that top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 95.8% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 40 percentage points. These stocks gained 24% in 2021 through July 9th and still beat the market by 6.7 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on JHG as the stock returned 28.1% since the end of Q1 (through 7/9) and outperformed the market. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.

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

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