The Insider Monkey team has completed processing the quarterly 13F filings for the September quarter submitted by the hedge funds and other money managers included in our extensive database. Most hedge fund investors experienced strong gains on the back of a strong market performance, which certainly propelled them to adjust their equity holdings so as to maintain the desired risk profile. As a result, the relevancy of these public filings and their content is indisputable, as they may reveal numerous high-potential stocks. The following article will discuss the smart money sentiment towards Village Super Market, Inc. (NASDAQ:VLGEA).
Village Super Market, Inc. (NASDAQ:VLGEA) shares haven't seen a lot of action during the third quarter. Overall, hedge fund sentiment was unchanged. The stock was in 8 hedge funds' portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2019. The level and the change in hedge fund popularity aren't the only variables you need to analyze to decipher hedge funds' perspectives. A stock may witness a boost in popularity but it may still be less popular than similarly priced stocks. That's why at the end of this article we will examine companies such as Switchback Energy Acquisition Corporation (NYSE:SBE), Verrica Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:VRCA), and Miller Industries, Inc. (NYSE:MLR) to gather more data points. Our calculations also showed that VLGEA isn't among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings and see the video below for Q2 rankings).
5 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds
Video: Click the image to watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.
According to most shareholders, hedge funds are seen as slow, old investment vehicles of yesteryear. While there are greater than 8000 funds with their doors open today, Our experts hone in on the crème de la crème of this club, around 750 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group of people orchestrate bulk of all hedge funds' total asset base, and by tailing their highest performing picks, Insider Monkey has brought to light various investment strategies that have historically exceeded the S&P 500 index. Insider Monkey's flagship short hedge fund strategy defeated the S&P 500 short ETFs by around 20 percentage points annually since its inception in May 2014. Our portfolio of short stocks lost 27.8% since February 2017 (through November 21st) even though the market was up more than 39% during the same period. We just shared a list of 7 short targets in our latest quarterly update .
We leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example Europe is set to become the world's largest cannabis market, so we check out this European marijuana stock pitch. One of the most bullish analysts in America just put his money where his mouth is. He says, "I'm investing more today than I did back in early 2009." So we check out his pitch. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. We also rely on the best performing hedge funds' buy/sell signals. Let's check out the new hedge fund action encompassing Village Super Market, Inc. (NASDAQ:VLGEA).
How have hedgies been trading Village Super Market, Inc. (NASDAQ:VLGEA)?
At the end of the third quarter, a total of 8 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 0% from the previous quarter. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in VLGEA over the last 17 quarters. With hedgies' sentiment swirling, there exists an "upper tier" of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes substantially (or already accumulated large positions).
Is VLGEA A Good Stock To Buy?
The largest stake in Village Super Market, Inc. (NASDAQ:VLGEA) was held by Renaissance Technologies, which reported holding $17.3 million worth of stock at the end of September. It was followed by Royce & Associates with a $14.1 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included GAMCO Investors, Arrowstreet Capital, and Millennium Management. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Royce & Associates allocated the biggest weight to Village Super Market, Inc. (NASDAQ:VLGEA), around 0.13% of its 13F portfolio. GAMCO Investors is also relatively very bullish on the stock, designating 0.03 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to VLGEA.
We view hedge fund activity in the stock unfavorable, but in this case there was only a single hedge fund selling its entire position: Springbok Capital. One hedge fund selling its entire position doesn't always imply a bearish intent. Theoretically a hedge fund may decide to sell a promising position in order to invest the proceeds in a more promising idea. However, we don't think this is the case in this case because only one of the 800+ hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey identified as a viable investment and initiated a position in the stock (that fund was Winton Capital Management).
Let's also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Village Super Market, Inc. (NASDAQ:VLGEA). These stocks are Switchback Energy Acquisition Corporation (NYSE:SBE), Verrica Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:VRCA), Miller Industries, Inc. (NYSE:MLR), and ORBCOMM Inc (NASDAQ:ORBC). This group of stocks' market caps resemble VLGEA's market cap.
[table] Ticker, No of HFs with positions, Total Value of HF Positions (x1000), Change in HF Position SBE,17,109079,17 VRCA,3,72329,-2 MLR,10,59784,2 ORBC,14,62666,1 Average,11,75965,4.5 [/table]
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 $76 million. That figure was $41 million in VLGEA's case. Switchback Energy Acquisition Corporation (NYSE:SBE) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Verrica Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:VRCA) is the least popular one with only 3 bullish hedge fund positions. Village Super Market, Inc. (NASDAQ:VLGEA) 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 37.4% in 2019 through the end of November and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 9.9 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on VLGEA, though not to the same extent, as the stock returned 7.9% during the first two months of the fourth quarter and outperformed the market.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
