Hedge Funds Are Crazy About Thomson Reuters Corporation (TRI)

A whopping number of 13F filings filed with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has been processed by Insider Monkey so that individual investors can look at the overall hedge fund sentiment towards the stocks included in their watchlists. These freshly-submitted public filings disclose money managers’ equity positions as of the end of the three-month period that ended March 31st, so let’s proceed with the discussion of the hedge fund sentiment on Thomson Reuters Corporation (NYSE:TRI).

Thomson Reuters Corporation (NYSE:TRI) shareholders have witnessed an increase in hedge fund sentiment in recent months. Thomson Reuters Corporation (NYSE:TRI) was in 28 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the first quarter of 2021. The all time high for this statistic is 25. This means the bullish number of hedge fund positions in this stock currently sits at its all time high. Our calculations also showed that TRI isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings).

In the financial world there are a large number of tools investors have at their disposal to grade stocks. A pair of the most under-the-radar tools are hedge fund and insider trading indicators. We have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best fund managers can outperform the broader indices by a solid amount. Insider Monkey’s monthly stock picks returned 206.8% since March 2017 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by more than 115 percentage points (see the details here). That’s why we believe hedge fund sentiment is a useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.

Peter Rathjens Arrowstreet Capital 394

Peter Rathjens of Arrowstreet Capital

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. Keeping this in mind let’s take a look at the latest hedge fund action surrounding Thomson Reuters Corporation (NYSE:TRI).

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

Heading into the second quarter of 2021, a total of 28 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 22% from the previous quarter. By comparison, 22 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in TRI a year ago. So, let’s check out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

Is TRI A Good Stock To Buy?

More specifically, Echo Street Capital Management was the largest shareholder of Thomson Reuters Corporation (NYSE:TRI), with a stake worth $98.7 million reported as of the end of March. Trailing Echo Street Capital Management was Renaissance Technologies, which amassed a stake valued at $48.6 million. Millennium Management, D E Shaw, and Woodline Partners 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 Six Columns Capital allocated the biggest weight to Thomson Reuters Corporation (NYSE:TRI), around 3.95% of its 13F portfolio. BlueMar Capital Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, dishing out 1.66 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to TRI.

Consequently, specific money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Woodline Partners, managed by Michael Rockefeller and KarláKroeker, created the most valuable position in Thomson Reuters Corporation (NYSE:TRI). Woodline Partners had $31.7 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Brad Stephens’s Six Columns Capital also initiated a $22.2 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital, Brad Stephens’s Six Columns Capital, and Mikal Patel’s Oribel Capital Management.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Thomson Reuters Corporation (NYSE:TRI). These stocks are Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX), Public Storage (NYSE:PSA), Johnson Controls International plc (NYSE:JCI), Align Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALGN), Ross Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:ROST), Exelon Corporation (NYSE:EXC), and TE Connectivity Ltd. (NYSE:TEL). All of these stocks’ market caps match TRI’s market cap.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
BAX 40 3357530 -2
PSA 26 929024 -5
JCI 41 1023861 7
ALGN 49 2831496 -1
ROST 48 976585 -9
EXC 44 1134135 14
TEL 39 2343917 0
Average 41 1799507 0.6

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 41 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1800 million. That figure was $395 million in TRI’s case. Align Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALGN) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Public Storage (NYSE:PSA) is the least popular one with only 26 bullish hedge fund positions. Thomson Reuters Corporation (NYSE:TRI) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for TRI is 44.3. 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 beat the market by 6.7 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on TRI, though not to the same extent, as the stock returned 16.4% since the end of Q1 (through July 9th) and outperformed the market.

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