What does the smart money think about Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR)?
At Q4’s end, a total of 30 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, an 11% rise from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes considerably (or had already accumulated large positions).
When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group has the biggest call position in Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR), worth close to $36.7 million, amounting to less than 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. The second most bullish fund manager is Dmitry Balyasny of Balyasny Asset Management, with a $33 million position; the fund has 0.2% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedge funds and institutional investors that are bullish include D E Shaw, Brian Ashford-Russell and Tim Woolley’s Polar Capital, and Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management.
Consequently, key hedge funds have been driving this bullishness. Point72 Asset Management assembled the most valuable new position in Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR). Point72 Asset Management had $21.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Sanford J. Colen’s Apex Capital also made a $19.5 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new TWTR investors: Philippe Jabre’s Jabre Capital Partners, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, and Adam Wolfberg and Steven Landry’s EastBay Asset Management.
Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR). We will take a look at Grupo Televisa SAB (ADR) (NYSE:TV), Cummins Inc. (NYSE:CMI), International Paper Company (NYSE:IP), and Mead Johnson Nutrition CO (NYSE:MJN). All of these stocks’ market caps are closest to TWTR’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| TV | 22 | 2015559 | -2 |
| CMI | 28 | 616774 | -4 |
| IP | 29 | 460762 | -3 |
| MJN | 38 | 1104503 | -5 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 29 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1.05 billion. That figure was $321 million in TWTR’s case. Mead Johnson Nutrition CO (NYSE:MJN) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Grupo Televisa SAB (ADR) (NYSE:TV) is the least popular one with only 22 bullish hedge fund positions. Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average, though the amount of capital invested in the stock is less than any of the above stocks. However, Twitter was the only stock with positive sentiment during the quarter, which may make it worth a closer look.
