The 700+ hedge funds and famous money managers tracked by Insider Monkey have already compiled and submitted their 13F filings for the first quarter, which unveil their equity positions as of March 31. We went through these filings, fixed typos and other more significant errors and identified the changes in hedge fund portfolios. Our extensive review of these public filings is finally over, so this article is set to reveal the smart money sentiment towards Brunswick Corporation (NYSE:BC).
Brunswick Corporation (NYSE:BC) investors should be aware of an increase in support from the world’s most elite money managers in recent months. Our calculations also showed that bc isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.
In the eyes of most shareholders, hedge funds are seen as worthless, old financial tools of the past. While there are over 8000 funds trading at present, Our experts choose to focus on the leaders of this club, approximately 750 funds. These hedge fund managers shepherd bulk of the hedge fund industry’s total capital, and by observing their best stock picks, Insider Monkey has brought to light many investment strategies that have historically exceeded Mr. Market. Insider Monkey’s flagship hedge fund strategy surpassed the S&P 500 index by around 5 percentage points per year since its inception in May 2014 through the end of May. We were able to generate large returns even by identifying short candidates. Our portfolio of short stocks lost 30.9% since February 2017 (through May 30th) even though the market was up nearly 24% during the same period. We just shared a list of 5 short targets in our latest quarterly update and they are already down an average of 11.9% in less than a couple of weeks whereas our long picks outperformed the market by 2 percentage points in this volatile 2 week period.
Cliff Asness of AQR Capital Management
Let’s take a gander at the recent hedge fund action surrounding Brunswick Corporation (NYSE:BC).
Hedge fund activity in Brunswick Corporation (NYSE:BC)
Heading into the second quarter of 2019, a total of 27 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 4% from the previous quarter. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in BC over the last 15 quarters. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes significantly (or already accumulated large positions).
The largest stake in Brunswick Corporation (NYSE:BC) was held by Lakewood Capital Management, which reported holding $147.8 million worth of stock at the end of March. It was followed by Adage Capital Management with a $70.4 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included D E Shaw, Impala Asset Management, and AQR Capital Management.
As aggregate interest increased, key money managers have been driving this bullishness. Point72 Asset Management, managed by Steve Cohen, initiated the largest position in Brunswick Corporation (NYSE:BC). Point72 Asset Management had $36.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. David Rosen’s Rubric Capital Management also made a $4.8 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Mariko Gordon’s Daruma Asset Management, Marc Majzner’s Clearline Capital, and Brandon Haley’s Holocene Advisors.
Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Brunswick Corporation (NYSE:BC) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Southwest Gas Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SWX), The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG), SLM Corp (NASDAQ:SLM), and Choice Hotels International, Inc. (NYSE:CHH). This group of stocks’ market values match BC’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| SWX | 20 | 207977 | 3 |
| SMG | 16 | 167599 | -4 |
| SLM | 29 | 576434 | 5 |
| CHH | 18 | 272313 | -1 |
| Average | 20.75 | 306081 | 0.75 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 20.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $306 million. That figure was $565 million in BC’s case. SLM Corp (NASDAQ:SLM) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG) is the least popular one with only 16 bullish hedge fund positions. Brunswick Corporation (NYSE:BC) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. Our calculations showed that top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 1.9% in Q2 through May 30th and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by more than 3 percentage points. Unfortunately BC wasn’t nearly as popular as these 20 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on BC were disappointed as the stock returned -14.9% during the same period and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds as 13 of these stocks already outperformed the market so far in Q2.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
