After several tireless days we have finished crunching the numbers from nearly 750 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 March 31. The results of that effort will be put on display in this article, as we share valuable insight into the smart money sentiment towards Paramount Group Inc (NYSE:PGRE).
Paramount Group Inc (NYSE:PGRE) was in 16 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of March. PGRE has seen an increase in hedge fund interest of late. There were 14 hedge funds in our database with PGRE positions at the end of the previous quarter. Our calculations also showed that pgre isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.
Why do we pay any attention at all to hedge fund sentiment? Our research has shown that hedge funds’ large-cap stock picks indeed failed to beat the market between 1999 and 2016. However, we were able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that outperformed the market by 40 percentage points since May 2014 through May 30, 2019 (see the details here). We were also able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that’ll significantly underperform the market. We have been tracking and sharing the list of these stocks since February 2017 and they lost 30.9% through May 30, 2019. That’s why we believe hedge fund sentiment is an extremely useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.
We’re going to take a glance at the new hedge fund action regarding Paramount Group Inc (NYSE:PGRE).
Hedge fund activity in Paramount Group Inc (NYSE:PGRE)
Heading into the second quarter of 2019, a total of 16 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 14% from one quarter earlier. On the other hand, there were a total of 9 hedge funds with a bullish position in PGRE 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.
Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Long Pond Capital, managed by John Khoury, holds the most valuable position in Paramount Group Inc (NYSE:PGRE). Long Pond Capital has a $89.1 million position in the stock, comprising 3.1% of its 13F portfolio. On Long Pond Capital’s heels is Renaissance Technologies, led by Jim Simons, holding a $57 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other members of the smart money that hold long positions comprise Noam Gottesman’s GLG Partners, Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.
As aggregate interest increased, key hedge funds have jumped into Paramount Group Inc (NYSE:PGRE) headfirst. Long Pond Capital, managed by John Khoury, created the most outsized position in Paramount Group Inc (NYSE:PGRE). Long Pond Capital had $89.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management also initiated a $1.6 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new PGRE positions are Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital and Jeffrey Talpins’s Element Capital Management.
Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Paramount Group Inc (NYSE:PGRE) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Perspecta Inc. (NYSE:PRSP), Ryder System, Inc. (NYSE:R), Qutoutiao Inc. (NASDAQ:QTT), and Omnicell, Inc. (NASDAQ:OMCL). This group of stocks’ market caps resemble PGRE’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| PRSP | 34 | 645903 | -3 |
| R | 19 | 380483 | 0 |
| QTT | 5 | 6780 | 4 |
| OMCL | 15 | 78492 | 2 |
| Average | 18.25 | 277915 | 0.75 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 18.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $278 million. That figure was $236 million in PGRE’s case. Perspecta Inc. (NYSE:PRSP) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Qutoutiao Inc. (NASDAQ:QTT) is the least popular one with only 5 bullish hedge fund positions. Paramount Group Inc (NYSE:PGRE) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our calculations showed that top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 6.2% in Q2 through June 19th and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by nearly 3 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on PGRE, though not to the same extent, as the stock returned 5% during the same time frame and outperformed the market as well.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
