Insider Monkey has processed numerous 13F filings of hedge funds and successful investors to create an extensive database of hedge fund holdings. The 13F filings show the hedge funds’ and successful investors’ positions as of the end of the first quarter. You can find write-ups about an individual hedge fund’s trades on numerous financial news websites. However, in this article we will take a look at their collective moves and analyze what the smart money thinks of Deckers Outdoor Corp (NYSE:DECK) based on that data.
Is Deckers Outdoor Corp (NYSE:DECK) a buy here? Money managers are betting on the stock. The number of long hedge fund bets rose by 8 in recent months. Our calculations also showed that deck isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds. DECK was in 29 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of March. There were 21 hedge funds in our database with DECK positions at the end of the previous quarter.
According to most traders, hedge funds are perceived as slow, old financial tools of years past. While there are over 8000 funds in operation today, We choose to focus on the top tier of this club, approximately 750 funds. It is estimated that this group of investors direct most of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by following their unrivaled investments, Insider Monkey has discovered a few investment strategies that have historically outrun the market. Insider Monkey’s flagship hedge fund strategy outpaced the S&P 500 index by around 5 percentage points per annum since its inception in May 2014 through the end of May. We were able to generate large returns even by identifying short candidates. Our portfolio of short stocks lost 30.9% since February 2017 (through May 30th) even though the market was up nearly 24% during the same period. We just shared a list of 5 short targets in our latest quarterly update and they are already down an average of 11.9% in less than a couple of weeks whereas our long picks outperformed the market by 2 percentage points in this volatile 2 week period.
We’re going to take a look at the latest hedge fund action regarding Deckers Outdoor Corp (NYSE:DECK).
What does the smart money think about Deckers Outdoor Corp (NYSE:DECK)?
At the end of the first quarter, a total of 29 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 38% from the previous quarter. On the other hand, there were a total of 25 hedge funds with a bullish position in DECK a year ago. So, let’s see which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
Among these funds, AQR Capital Management held the most valuable stake in Deckers Outdoor Corp (NYSE:DECK), which was worth $218.8 million at the end of the first quarter. On the second spot was Renaissance Technologies which amassed $99.8 million worth of shares. Moreover, Millennium Management, Citadel Investment Group, and Maverick Capital were also bullish on Deckers Outdoor Corp (NYSE:DECK), allocating a large percentage of their portfolios to this stock.
With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, specific money managers have jumped into Deckers Outdoor Corp (NYSE:DECK) headfirst. Maverick Capital, managed by Lee Ainslie, assembled the most outsized position in Deckers Outdoor Corp (NYSE:DECK). Maverick Capital had $29.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP also initiated a $25 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new DECK investors: Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital, Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management, and Mike Vranos’s Ellington.
Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Deckers Outdoor Corp (NYSE:DECK) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Blackstone Mortgage Trust Inc (NYSE:BXMT), Essent Group Ltd (NYSE:ESNT), Pinnacle Financial Partners, Inc. (NASDAQ:PNFP), and ALLETE Inc (NYSE:ALE). This group of stocks’ market caps match DECK’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| BXMT | 15 | 101684 | -1 |
| ESNT | 27 | 309747 | -1 |
| PNFP | 15 | 87922 | 0 |
| ALE | 18 | 246797 | 0 |
| Average | 18.75 | 186538 | -0.5 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 18.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $187 million. That figure was $594 million in DECK’s case. Essent Group Ltd (NYSE:ESNT) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Blackstone Mortgage Trust Inc (NYSE:BXMT) is the least popular one with only 15 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Deckers Outdoor Corp (NYSE:DECK) is more popular among hedge funds. Our calculations showed that top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 1.9% in Q2 through May 30th and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by more than 3 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on DECK as the stock returned 3.2% during the same period and outperformed the market by an even larger margin. Hedge funds were clearly right about piling into this stock relative to other stocks with similar market capitalizations.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
