We at Insider Monkey have gone over 821 13F filings that hedge funds and prominent investors are required to file by the SEC The 13F filings show the funds’ and investors’ portfolio positions as of March 31st, near the height of the coronavirus market crash. In this article, we look at what those funds think of Sunrun Inc (NASDAQ:RUN) based on that data.
Sunrun Inc (NASDAQ:RUN) shareholders have witnessed an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds lately. Our calculations also showed that RUN 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.
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Chase Coleman of Tiger Global
We leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, we believe electric vehicles and energy storage are set to become giant markets, and we want to take advantage of the declining lithium prices amid the COVID-19 pandemic. So we are checking out investment opportunities like these. 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 let’s check out the key hedge fund action regarding Sunrun Inc (NASDAQ:RUN).
How are hedge funds trading Sunrun Inc (NASDAQ:RUN)?
Heading into the second quarter of 2020, a total of 24 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 4% from one quarter earlier. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in RUN over the last 18 quarters. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were adding to their holdings significantly (or already accumulated large positions).
The largest stake in Sunrun Inc (NASDAQ:RUN) was held by Tiger Global Management LLC, which reported holding $300.7 million worth of stock at the end of September. It was followed by Arosa Capital Management with a $21 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included Ardsley Partners, Two Sigma Advisors, and Millennium Management. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Ardsley Partners allocated the biggest weight to Sunrun Inc (NASDAQ:RUN), around 3.66% of its 13F portfolio. Ecofin Ltd is also relatively very bullish on the stock, designating 3.19 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to RUN.
With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, some big names were breaking ground themselves. ZWEIG DIMENNA PARTNERS, managed by Joe DiMenna, created the largest position in Sunrun Inc (NASDAQ:RUN). ZWEIG DIMENNA PARTNERS had $0.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management also made a $0.5 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP, Jose Fernandez’s Stepstone Group, and Stephen C. Freidheim’s Cyrus Capital Partners.
Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Sunrun Inc (NASDAQ:RUN). These stocks are SciPlay Corporation (NASDAQ:SCPL), 360 Finance, Inc. (NASDAQ:QFIN), WillScot Corporation (NASDAQ:WSC), and Installed Building Products Inc (NYSE:IBP). This group of stocks’ market values match RUN’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| SCPL | 17 | 80281 | 2 |
| QFIN | 3 | 10465 | -9 |
| WSC | 28 | 187831 | 0 |
| IBP | 21 | 86225 | -3 |
| Average | 17.25 | 91201 | -2.5 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 17.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $91 million. That figure was $367 million in RUN’s case. WillScot Corporation (NASDAQ:WSC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand 360 Finance, Inc. (NASDAQ:QFIN) is the least popular one with only 3 bullish hedge fund positions. Sunrun Inc (NASDAQ:RUN) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. 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 gained 13.9% in 2020 through June 10th but still beat the market by 14.2 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on RUN as the stock returned 84.4% in Q2 (through June 10th) and outperformed the market. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
