Hedge Funds Have Never Been This Bullish On Hibbett, Inc. (HIBB)

At Insider Monkey, we pore over the filings of nearly 873 top investment firms every quarter, a process we have now completed for the latest reporting period. The data we’ve gathered as a result gives us access to a wealth of collective knowledge based on these firms’ portfolio holdings as of June 30th. In this article, we will use that wealth of knowledge to determine whether or not Hibbett, Inc. (NASDAQ:HIBB) makes for a good investment right now.

Is Hibbett, Inc. (NASDAQ:HIBB) a buy right now? The best stock pickers were getting more bullish. The number of long hedge fund positions inched up by 5 recently. Hibbett, Inc. (NASDAQ:HIBB) was in 22 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the second quarter of 2021. The all time high for this statistic was previously 21. This means the bullish number of hedge fund positions in this stock currently sits at its all time high. Our calculations also showed that HIBB isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q2 rankings). There were 17 hedge funds in our database with HIBB holdings at the end of March.

To the average investor there are dozens of tools shareholders can use to evaluate publicly traded companies. A couple of the most useful tools are hedge fund and insider trading interest. Our researchers have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite money managers can trounce the market by a solid amount (see the details here). 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.

At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, lithium mining is one of the fastest growing industries right now, so we are checking out stock pitches like this emerging lithium stock. We go through lists like the 10 best EV 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 we’re going to check out the latest hedge fund action regarding Hibbett, Inc. (NASDAQ:HIBB).

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

At the end of the second quarter, a total of 22 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 29% from the first quarter of 2020. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards HIBB over the last 24 quarters. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were adding to their stakes substantially (or already accumulated large positions).

Among these funds, Renaissance Technologies held the most valuable stake in Hibbett, Inc. (NASDAQ:HIBB), which was worth $34.9 million at the end of the second quarter. On the second spot was Arrowstreet Capital which amassed $27.5 million worth of shares. D E Shaw, Millennium Management, and Balyasny Asset 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 Quantamental Technologies allocated the biggest weight to Hibbett, Inc. (NASDAQ:HIBB), around 0.26% of its 13F portfolio. Navellier & Associates is also relatively very bullish on the stock, designating 0.22 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to HIBB.

Consequently, key money managers have jumped into Hibbett, Inc. (NASDAQ:HIBB) headfirst. Marshall Wace LLP, managed by Paul Marshall and Ian Wace, initiated the largest position in Hibbett, Inc. (NASDAQ:HIBB). Marshall Wace LLP had $6.7 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp also initiated a $2.6 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new HIBB positions are Michael Gelband’s ExodusPoint Capital, Donald Sussman’s Paloma Partners, and Bruce Kovner’s Caxton Associates LP.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Hibbett, Inc. (NASDAQ:HIBB). These stocks are NV5 Global Inc (NASDAQ:NVEE), Astec Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTE), Uxin Limited (NASDAQ:UXIN), The Greenbrier Companies Inc (NYSE:GBX), Middlesex Water Company (NASDAQ:MSEX), BioAtla, Inc. (NASDAQ:BCAB), and Genesis Energy, L.P. (NYSE:GEL). This group of stocks’ market values match HIBB’s market value.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 9.6 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $82 million. That figure was $167 million in HIBB’s case. The Greenbrier Companies Inc (NYSE:GBX) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Genesis Energy, L.P. (NYSE:GEL) is the least popular one with only 5 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Hibbett, Inc. (NASDAQ:HIBB) is more popular among hedge funds. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for HIBB is 90. 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 October 22nd and still beat the market by 1.6 percentage points. Unfortunately HIBB wasn’t nearly as popular as these 5 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on HIBB were disappointed as the stock returned -9% since the end of the second quarter (through 10/22) and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds as most of these stocks already outperformed the market since 2019.

Suggested Articles:

• 10 Best Biotech Stocks to Buy According to Cathie Wood
• Amish Mehta and SQN Investors’ Top Picks
• 11 Best Natural Gas Stocks To Buy Now

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