IHS Inc. (IHS) Posts Q2 Beat, Ups Outlook: Did Hedge Funds See It Coming?

How have hedgies been trading IHS Inc. (NYSE:IHS)?

By the end of this year’s first quarter, a total of 26 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish in this stock, a change of 8% from the preceding quarter. In terms of value of holdings, hedge funds owned IHS Inc. shares amounting to about $1.02 billion by the end of the first three months of 2015, up significantly by 42.66% from about $715.77 million at the end of the previous quarter, while shares increased by just 5.66% during the same period, meaning much of the appreciation was bought, not earned through returns.

Robert Joseph Caruso’s Select Equity Group had the most valuable position in IHS Inc. (NYSE:IHS), worth close to $321.3 million, corresponding to 2.9% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second was John Griffin of Blue Ridge Capital, with a $273 million position. His fund has 3.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the data and analytics company. Some other members of the smart money that held long positions were D. E. Shaw’s D. E. Shaw, and Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies, both quant funds who use a good deal of data and analytics of their own to choose which companies to invest in.

As one would reasonably expect, key hedge funds have been driving this bullishness. Hitchwood Capital Management, managed by James Crichton, created the most outsized position in IHS Inc. (NYSE:IHS). Hitchwood Capital Management had 137.7 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Mick Hellman’s HMI Capital also made a $25.7 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new IHS positions were Seymour Sy Kaufman and Michael Stark’s Crosslink Capital, James Parsons’ Junto Capital Management, and Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates.

Due to the confidence of hedge funds, both in terms of number of hedge funds which are long in the stock and the total value of holdings they owned by the end of the first quarter, as well as the better-than-expected second quarter performance and lifted guidance for the full fiscal year, we venture IHS Inc. (NYSE:IHS) is a good stock to buy.

Disclosure: None