Should You Avoid Estee Lauder Companies Inc (EL)?

Hedge fund managers like David Einhorn, Dan Loeb, or Carl Icahn became billionaires through reaping large profits for their investors, which is why piggybacking their stock picks may provide us with significant returns as well. Many hedge funds, like Paul Singer’s Elliott Management, are pretty secretive, but we can still get some insights by analyzing their quarterly 13F filings. One of the most fertile grounds for large abnormal returns is hedge funds’ most popular small-cap picks, which are not so widely followed and often trade at a discount to their intrinsic value. In this article we will check out hedge fund activity in another small-cap stock: Estee Lauder Companies Inc (NYSE:EL).

Estee Lauder Companies Inc (NYSE:EL) has seen a decrease in hedge fund sentiment recently. EL was in 27 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. There were 31 hedge funds in our database with EL holdings at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of this article we will also compare EL to other stocks including Manulife Financial Corporation (USA) (NYSE:MFC), Wipro Limited (ADR) (NYSE:WIT), and Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS) to get a better sense of its popularity.

Now, we’re going to view the latest action regarding Estee Lauder Companies Inc (NYSE:EL).

What have hedge funds been doing with Estee Lauder Companies Inc (NYSE:EL)?

Heading into Q4, a total of 27 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of -13% from the second quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings substantially (or already accumulated large positions).

According to Insider Monkey’s hedge fund database, Columbus Circle Investors has the largest position in Estee Lauder Companies Inc (NYSE:EL), worth close to $120.9 million, accounting for 1% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Renaissance Technologies, led by Jim Simons, holding a $56.7 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedge funds and institutional investors that hold long positions comprise Cliff Asness’ AQR Capital Management, Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital and Gabriel Plotkin’s Melvin Capital Management.