Here is What Hedge Funds Think About Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (MUFG)

We can judge whether Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (NYSE:MUFG) is a good investment right now by following the lead of some of the best investors in the world and piggybacking their ideas. There’s no better way to get these firms’ immense resources and analytical capabilities working for us than to follow their lead into their best ideas. While not all of these picks will be winners, our research shows that these picks historically outperformed the market when we factor in known risk factors.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (NYSE:MUFG) shareholders have witnessed an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds of late. MUFG was in 9 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of December. Our calculations also showed that MUFG isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.

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D. E. Shaw

We’re going to take a glance at the latest hedge fund action encompassing Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (NYSE:MUFG).

What does the smart money think about Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (NYSE:MUFG)?

#DIV/0!

The largest stake in Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (NYSE:MUFG) was held by LMR Partners, which reported holding $50.9 million worth of stock at the end of September. It was followed by Fisher Asset Management with a $11.6 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included D E Shaw, Arrowstreet Capital, and Two Sigma Advisors.

MUFG_mar2019

As industrywide interest jumped, specific money managers have been driving this bullishness. Two Sigma Advisors, managed by John Overdeck and David Siegel, established the most valuable position in Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (NYSE:MUFG). Two Sigma Advisors had $0.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP also made a $0.5 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The only other fund with a new position in the stock is Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (NYSE:MUFG) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Enbridge Inc (NYSE:ENB), BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK), Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS), and Ambev SA (NYSE:ABEV). All of these stocks’ market caps are similar to MUFG’s market cap.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
ENB 18 174780 -3
BLK 36 1065680 -4
GS 70 6344965 13
ABEV 13 233897 -1
Average 34.25 1954831 1.25

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 34.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1955 million. That figure was $73 million in MUFG’s case. Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Ambev SA (NYSE:ABEV) is the least popular one with only 13 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (NYSE:MUFG) is even less popular than ABEV. Our calculations showed that top 15 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 19.7% through March 15th and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 6.6 percentage points. Unfortunately MUFG wasn’t in this group. Hedge funds that bet on MUFG were disappointed as the stock returned 6.2% and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks, you should check out the top 15 hedge fund stocks as 13 of these outperformed the market.

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