Hedge Funds Are Crazy About Boyd Gaming Corporation (BYD)

After several tireless days we have finished crunching the numbers from nearly 900 13F filings issued by the elite hedge funds and other investment firms that we track at Insider Monkey, which disclosed those firms’ equity portfolios as of June 30th. The results of that effort will be put on display in this article, as we share valuable insight into the smart money sentiment towards Boyd Gaming Corporation (NYSE:BYD).

Boyd Gaming Corporation (NYSE:BYD) shareholders have witnessed an increase in hedge fund sentiment of late. Boyd Gaming Corporation (NYSE:BYD) was in 36 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of June. The all time high for this statistic is 34. This means the bullish number of hedge fund positions in this stock currently sits at its all time high. Our calculations also showed that BYD isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q2 rankings).

According to most shareholders, hedge funds are perceived as unimportant, outdated financial vehicles of yesteryear. While there are more than 8000 funds trading at the moment, We choose to focus on the aristocrats of this group, about 850 funds. It is estimated that this group of investors handle the lion’s share of the smart money’s total asset base, and by watching their highest performing stock picks, Insider Monkey has brought to light a few investment strategies that have historically beaten the S&P 500 index. Insider Monkey’s flagship short hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 short ETFs by around 20 percentage points per year since its inception in March 2017. Also, our monthly newsletter’s portfolio of long stock picks returned 185.4% since March 2017 (through August 2021) and beat the S&P 500 Index by more than 79 percentage points. You can download a sample issue of this newsletter on our website.

Parag Vora - HG Vora Capital

Parag Vora of HG Vora Capital Management

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

At second quarter’s end, a total of 36 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 64% from the first quarter of 2020. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in BYD over the last 24 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 BYD A Good Stock To Buy?

Among these funds, HG Vora Capital Management held the most valuable stake in Boyd Gaming Corporation (NYSE:BYD), which was worth $92.2 million at the end of the second quarter. On the second spot was GAMCO Investors which amassed $77.7 million worth of shares. Millennium Management, Melvin Capital Management, and Arrowstreet Capital 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 Land & Buildings Investment Management allocated the biggest weight to Boyd Gaming Corporation (NYSE:BYD), around 5.06% of its 13F portfolio. Becker Drapkin Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 4.42 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to BYD.

As one would reasonably expect, some big names have jumped into Boyd Gaming Corporation (NYSE:BYD) headfirst. HG Vora Capital Management, managed by Parag Vora, initiated the biggest position in Boyd Gaming Corporation (NYSE:BYD). HG Vora Capital Management had $92.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Renaissance Technologies also made a $17.5 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new BYD investors: Doug Gordon, Jon Hilsabeck and Don Jabro’s Shellback Capital, Brad Stephens’s Six Columns Capital, and Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Boyd Gaming Corporation (NYSE:BYD). These stocks are Alcoa Corporation (NYSE:AA), Dada Nexus Limited (NASDAQ:DADA), Silicon Laboratories (NASDAQ:SLAB), Sotera Health Company (NASDAQ:SHC), First American Financial Corp (NYSE:FAF), ANGI Homeservices Inc (NASDAQ:ANGI), and Stifel Financial Corp. (NYSE:SF). This group of stocks’ market values are closest to BYD’s market value.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
AA 44 1155642 6
DADA 18 160572 -3
SLAB 15 283453 -3
SHC 18 437692 -18
FAF 31 1224925 -1
ANGI 26 313560 -9
SF 24 416826 9
Average 25.1 570381 -2.7

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 25.1 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $570 million. That figure was $535 million in BYD’s case. Alcoa Corporation (NYSE:AA) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Silicon Laboratories (NASDAQ:SLAB) is the least popular one with only 15 bullish hedge fund positions. Boyd Gaming Corporation (NYSE:BYD) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for BYD is 76.2. 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 21.8% in 2021 through October 11th and still beat the market by 4.4 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on BYD as the stock returned 4.1% since the end of Q2 (through 10/11) 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.