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 International Seaways, Inc. (NYSE:INSW).
International Seaways, Inc. (NYSE:INSW) shareholders have witnessed an increase in hedge fund sentiment lately. INSW was in 11 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the first quarter of 2019. There were 8 hedge funds in our database with INSW holdings at the end of the previous quarter. Our calculations also showed that insw isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.
So, why do we pay attention to hedge fund sentiment before making any investment decisions? Our research has shown that hedge funds’ small-cap stock picks managed to beat the market by double digits annually between 1999 and 2016, but the margin of outperformance has been declining in recent years. Nevertheless, we were still able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that outperformed the market by 40 percentage points since May 2014 through May 30, 2019 (see the details here). We were also able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that underperformed the market by 10 percentage points annually between 2006 and 2017. Interestingly the margin of underperformance of these stocks has been increasing in recent years. Investors who are long the market and short these stocks would have returned more than 27% annually between 2015 and 2017. We have been tracking and sharing the list of these stocks since February 2017 in our quarterly newsletter. Even if you aren’t comfortable with shorting stocks, you should at least avoid initiating long positions in our short portfolio.
We’re going to view the fresh hedge fund action encompassing International Seaways, Inc. (NYSE:INSW).
How have hedgies been trading International Seaways, Inc. (NYSE:INSW)?
At the end of the first quarter, a total of 11 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 38% from the previous quarter. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards INSW over the last 15 quarters. So, let’s check out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
More specifically, Cyrus Capital Partners was the largest shareholder of International Seaways, Inc. (NYSE:INSW), with a stake worth $68.6 million reported as of the end of March. Trailing Cyrus Capital Partners was Paulson & Co, which amassed a stake valued at $34.3 million. Blue Mountain Capital, Mangrove Partners, and Carlson Capital were also very fond of the stock, giving the stock large weights in their portfolios.
With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key money managers were breaking ground themselves. Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, initiated the most outsized position in International Seaways, Inc. (NYSE:INSW). Citadel Investment Group had $1.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP also initiated a $0.4 million position during the quarter. The only other fund with a brand new INSW position is Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.
Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to International Seaways, Inc. (NYSE:INSW). These stocks are New Gold Inc. (NYSE:NGD), Star Group, L.P. (NYSE:SGU), Pareteum Corporation (NASDAQ:TEUM), and Agilysys, Inc. (NASDAQ:AGYS). All of these stocks’ market caps are closest to INSW’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| NGD | 13 | 47671 | -2 |
| SGU | 8 | 99694 | 0 |
| TEUM | 9 | 17634 | 2 |
| AGYS | 14 | 121010 | 1 |
| Average | 11 | 71502 | 0.25 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 11 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $72 million. That figure was $160 million in INSW’s case. Agilysys, Inc. (NASDAQ:AGYS) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Star Group, L.P. (NYSE:SGU) is the least popular one with only 8 bullish hedge fund positions. International Seaways, Inc. (NYSE:INSW) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our calculations showed that top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 6.2% in Q2 through June 19th and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by nearly 3 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on INSW, though not to the same extent, as the stock returned 4.3% during the same time frame and outperformed the market as well.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
