Is BLL A Good Stock To Buy According To Hedge Funds?

At Insider Monkey, we pore over the filings of nearly 817 top investment firms every quarter, a process we have now completed for the latest reporting period. The data we’ve gathered as a result gives us access to a wealth of collective knowledge based on these firms’ portfolio holdings as of September 30. In this article, we will use that wealth of knowledge to determine whether or not Ball Corporation (NYSE:BLL) makes for a good investment right now.

Is BLL a good stock to buy? Ball Corporation (NYSE:BLL) investors should be aware of a decrease in support from the world’s most elite money managers lately. Ball Corporation (NYSE:BLL) was in 33 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2020. The all time high for this statistic is 44. Our calculations also showed that BLL isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 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.

To most shareholders, hedge funds are perceived as unimportant, outdated financial vehicles of the past. While there are more than 8000 funds in operation at present, We choose to focus on the elite of this group, about 850 funds. These investment experts administer most of all hedge funds’ total capital, and by keeping track of their matchless picks, Insider Monkey has deciphered several investment strategies that have historically surpassed the S&P 500 index. Insider Monkey’s flagship short hedge fund strategy outrun the S&P 500 short ETFs by around 20 percentage points annually since its inception in March 2017. Our portfolio of short stocks lost 13% since February 2017 (through November 17th) even though the market was up 65% during the same period. We just shared a list of 6 short targets in our latest quarterly update .

At Insider Monkey we leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, the House passed a landmark bill decriminalizing marijuana. So, we are checking out this under the radar cannabis stock right now. We go through lists like the 15 best blue chip stocks to buy to pick the best large-cap stocks to buy. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. You can subscribe to our free daily newsletter on our website. Now we’re going to take a glance at the recent hedge fund action surrounding Ball Corporation (NYSE:BLL).

Do Hedge Funds Think BLL Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?

At the end of September, a total of 33 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of -13% from one quarter earlier. By comparison, 34 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in BLL a year ago. So, let’s see which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

Among these funds, Chilton Investment Company held the most valuable stake in Ball Corporation (NYSE:BLL), which was worth $272.7 million at the end of the third quarter. On the second spot was D1 Capital Partners which amassed $262.9 million worth of shares. Iridian Asset Management, Echo Street Capital Management, and MIG Capital were also very fond of the stock, becoming one of the largest hedge fund holders of the company. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Chilton Investment Company allocated the biggest weight to Ball Corporation (NYSE:BLL), around 8.03% of its 13F portfolio. MIG Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, designating 4.81 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to BLL.

Since Ball Corporation (NYSE:BLL) has experienced declining sentiment from hedge fund managers, we can see that there is a sect of hedgies that decided to sell off their entire stakes last quarter. It’s worth mentioning that James Parsons’s Junto Capital Management cut the largest investment of the 750 funds watched by Insider Monkey, worth about $43.6 million in stock. Anand More’s fund, SAYA Management, also sold off its stock, about $14.8 million worth. These transactions are important to note, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 5 funds last quarter.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Ball Corporation (NYSE:BLL) but similarly valued. These stocks are Otis Worldwide Corporation (NYSE:OTIS), Manulife Financial Corporation (NYSE:MFC), Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:WLTW), Wipro Limited (NYSE:WIT), Motorola Solutions Inc (NYSE:MSI), Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ:MRVL), and Franco-Nevada Corporation (NYSE:FNV). This group of stocks’ market caps are closest to BLL’s market cap.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 33 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1143 million. That figure was $933 million in BLL’s case. Otis Worldwide Corporation (NYSE:OTIS) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Wipro Limited (NYSE:WIT) is the least popular one with only 9 bullish hedge fund positions. Ball Corporation (NYSE:BLL) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for BLL is 49.8. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. Our calculations showed that top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 41.3% in 2019 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 10 percentage points. These stocks gained 33.3% in 2020 through December 18th and beat the market by 16.4 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on BLL, though not to the same extent, as the stock returned 11.1% since the end of Q3 (through December 18th) and outperformed the market.

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