With the fourth-quarter round of 13F filings behind us it is time to take a look at the stocks in which some of the best money managers in the world preferred to invest or sell heading into the first quarter. One of these stocks was Anworth Mortgage Asset Corporation (NYSE:ANH).
Anworth Mortgage Asset Corporation (NYSE:ANH) was in 9 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of December. ANH has experienced an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds in recent months. There were 6 hedge funds in our database with ANH positions at the end of the previous quarter. Our calculations also showed that ANH isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.
Today there are several signals shareholders put to use to analyze stocks. A couple of the most innovative signals are hedge fund and insider trading moves. Our experts have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite hedge fund managers can outclass their index-focused peers by a very impressive amount (see the details here).
We’re going to take a gander at the recent hedge fund action encompassing Anworth Mortgage Asset Corporation (NYSE:ANH).
Hedge fund activity in Anworth Mortgage Asset Corporation (NYSE:ANH)
Heading into the first quarter of 2019, a total of 9 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 50% from the previous quarter. On the other hand, there were a total of 11 hedge funds with a bullish position in ANH a year ago. So, let’s find out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
The largest stake in Anworth Mortgage Asset Corporation (NYSE:ANH) was held by Renaissance Technologies, which reported holding $24.8 million worth of stock at the end of December. It was followed by D E Shaw with a $0.4 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included Millennium Management, BlueCrest Capital Mgmt., and Caxton Associates LP.
With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. BlueCrest Capital Mgmt., managed by Michael Platt and William Reeves, assembled the most valuable position in Anworth Mortgage Asset Corporation (NYSE:ANH). BlueCrest Capital Mgmt. had $0.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Jeffrey Talpins’s Element Capital Management also initiated a $0.1 million position during the quarter. The only other fund with a brand new ANH position is John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors.
Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Anworth Mortgage Asset Corporation (NYSE:ANH). These stocks are Quotient Limited (NASDAQ:QTNT), New Frontier Corp (NYSE:NFC), U.S. Lime & Minerals Inc. (NASDAQ:USLM), and Veritiv Corp (NYSE:VRTV). This group of stocks’ market valuations are closest to ANH’s market valuation.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| QTNT | 19 | 203487 | 0 |
| NFC | 14 | 67411 | -1 |
| USLM | 2 | 16994 | -2 |
| VRTV | 10 | 99081 | -3 |
| Average | 11.25 | 96743 | -1.5 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 11.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $97 million. That figure was $26 million in ANH’s case. Quotient Limited (NASDAQ:QTNT) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand U.S. Lime & Minerals Inc. (NASDAQ:USLM) is the least popular one with only 2 bullish hedge fund positions. Anworth Mortgage Asset Corporation (NYSE:ANH) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. Our calculations showed that top 15 most popular stocks) among hedge funds returned 24.2% through April 22nd and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by more than 7 percentage points. Unfortunately ANH wasn’t nearly as popular as these 15 stock (hedge fund sentiment was quite bearish); ANH investors were disappointed as the stock returned 5.8% and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 15 most popular stocks) among hedge funds as 13 of these stocks already outperformed the market this year.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
