Were Hedge Funds Right About FirstService Corporation (FSV)?

The 800+ 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 31st. 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 FirstService Corporation (NASDAQ:FSV).

FirstService Corporation (NASDAQ:FSV) shareholders have witnessed an increase in hedge fund sentiment lately. FirstService Corporation (NASDAQ:FSV) was in 17 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the first quarter of 2021. The all time high for this statistic was previously 16. This means the bullish number of hedge fund positions in this stock currently sits at its all time high. Our calculations also showed that FSV isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings).

In the financial world there are a large number of tools investors have at their disposal to grade stocks. A pair of the most under-the-radar tools are hedge fund and insider trading indicators. We have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best fund managers can outperform the broader indices by a solid amount. Insider Monkey’s monthly stock picks returned 206.8% since March 2017 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by more than 115 percentage points (see the details here). That’s why we believe hedge fund sentiment is a useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.

At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, pet market is growing at a 7% annual rate and is expected to reach $110 billion in 2021. So, we are checking out the 5 best stocks for animal lovers. We go through lists like the 15 best Jim Cramer stocks to identify the next Tesla that will deliver outsized returns. 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 homepage. Now let’s take a look at the latest hedge fund action regarding FirstService Corporation (NASDAQ:FSV).

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

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 17 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 6% from the fourth quarter of 2020. By comparison, 12 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in FSV a year ago. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes substantially (or already accumulated large positions).

When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Renaissance Technologies has the most valuable position in FirstService Corporation (NASDAQ:FSV), worth close to $128.7 million, accounting for 0.2% of its total 13F portfolio. On Renaissance Technologies’s heels is Leon Lowenstein of Lionstone Capital Management, with a $25.8 million position; 6.6% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other members of the smart money that are bullish include Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates, D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw and John Osterweis’s Osterweis Capital Management. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Lionstone Capital Management allocated the biggest weight to FirstService Corporation (NASDAQ:FSV), around 6.59% of its 13F portfolio. AltraVue Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, setting aside 1.91 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to FSV.

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, specific money managers have jumped into FirstService Corporation (NASDAQ:FSV) headfirst. Paloma Partners, managed by Donald Sussman, created the most valuable position in FirstService Corporation (NASDAQ:FSV). Paloma Partners had $1.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. David Cohen and Harold Levy’s Iridian Asset Management also initiated a $0.2 million position during the quarter. The only other fund with a brand new FSV position is Noam Gottesman’s GLG Partners.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to FirstService Corporation (NASDAQ:FSV). These stocks are Huntsman Corporation (NYSE:HUN), eXp World Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPI), Apartment Income REIT Corp. (NYSE:AIRC), Sonoco Products Company (NYSE:SON), MDU Resources Group Inc (NYSE:MDU), WillScot Mobile Mini Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:WSC), and Affiliated Managers Group, Inc. (NYSE:AMG). This group of stocks’ market values are closest to FSV’s market value.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 26.1 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $491 million. That figure was $239 million in FSV’s case. WillScot Mobile Mini Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:WSC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Apartment Income REIT Corp. (NYSE:AIRC) is the least popular one with only 14 bullish hedge fund positions. FirstService Corporation (NASDAQ:FSV) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for FSV is 40.5. 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 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 95.8% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 40 percentage points. These stocks gained 28.5% in 2021 through July 23rd and still beat the market by 10.1 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on FSV as the stock returned 23.1% since the end of the first quarter (through 7/23) and outperformed the market by an even larger margin.

Suggested Articles:

• 10 Best Healthcare Stocks To Buy
• 10 best stocks to buy with $1,000
• 10 Best Airline Stocks to Buy Now

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