Hedge Funds Never Been Less Bullish On QEP Resources Inc (QEP)

The latest 13F reporting period has come and gone, and Insider Monkey is again at the forefront when it comes to making use of this gold mine of data. Insider Monkey finished processing 821 13F filings submitted by hedge funds and prominent investors. These filings show these funds’ portfolio positions as of March 31st, 2020. In this article we are going to take a look at smart money sentiment towards QEP Resources Inc (NYSE:QEP).

Is QEP Resources Inc (NYSE:QEP) a buy, sell, or hold? Money managers are becoming less hopeful. The number of long hedge fund bets retreated by 8 recently. Our calculations also showed that QEP isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings and see the video for a quick look at the top 5 stocks).

Video: Watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.

In the eyes of most shareholders, hedge funds are viewed as unimportant, outdated financial tools of yesteryear. While there are over 8000 funds in operation at present, We hone in on the elite of this group, around 850 funds. These hedge fund managers command bulk of all hedge funds’ total asset base, and by tailing their finest picks, Insider Monkey has unsheathed a few investment strategies that have historically outpaced 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 annually since its inception in March 2017. Our portfolio of short stocks lost 36% since February 2017 (through May 18th) even though the market was up 30% during the same period. We just shared a list of 8 short targets in our latest quarterly update .

We leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example Europe is set to become the world’s largest cannabis market, so we check out this European marijuana stock pitch. We interview hedge fund managers and ask them about their best ideas. If you want to find out the best healthcare stock to buy right now, you can watch our latest hedge fund manager interview here. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. Our best call in 2020 was shorting the market when the S&P 500 was trading at 3150 after realizing the coronavirus pandemic’s significance before most investors. Keeping this in mind we’re going to take a gander at the new hedge fund action encompassing QEP Resources Inc (NYSE:QEP).

What have hedge funds been doing with QEP Resources Inc (NYSE:QEP)?

At Q1’s end, a total of 15 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of -35% from the previous quarter. On the other hand, there were a total of 23 hedge funds with a bullish position in QEP a year ago. So, let’s review which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

According to Insider Monkey’s hedge fund database, Adage Capital Management, managed by Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson, holds the number one position in QEP Resources Inc (NYSE:QEP). Adage Capital Management has a $3.3 million position in the stock, comprising less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio. On Adage Capital Management’s heels is Renaissance Technologies, holding a $2.2 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other members of the smart money that are bullish consist of D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Paulson & Co allocated the biggest weight to QEP Resources Inc (NYSE:QEP), around 0.01% of its 13F portfolio. Adage Capital Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, setting aside 0.01 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to QEP.

Seeing as QEP Resources Inc (NYSE:QEP) has faced bearish sentiment from hedge fund managers, logic holds that there were a few money managers who sold off their positions entirely last quarter. At the top of the heap, Paul Singer’s Elliott Management said goodbye to the biggest investment of all the hedgies watched by Insider Monkey, valued at an estimated $52.7 million in stock, and Anand Parekh’s Alyeska Investment Group was right behind this move, as the fund cut about $6.5 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 8 funds last quarter.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to QEP Resources Inc (NYSE:QEP). We will take a look at Tupperware Brands Corporation (NYSE:TUP), StealthGas Inc. (NASDAQ:GASS), Just Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:JE), and Axcella Health Inc. (NASDAQ:AXLA). All of these stocks’ market caps are similar to QEP’s market cap.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 5.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $11 million. That figure was $13 million in QEP’s case. Tupperware Brands Corporation (NYSE:TUP) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Axcella Health Inc. (NASDAQ:AXLA) is the least popular one with only 2 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks QEP Resources Inc (NYSE:QEP) is more popular among hedge funds. Our calculations showed that top 10 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 41.4% in 2019 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 10.1 percentage points. These stocks returned 13.3% in 2020 through June 25th but still managed to beat the market by 16.8 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on QEP as the stock returned 269.7% so far in Q2 (through June 25th) 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.