"The end to the U.S. Government shutdown, reports of progress on China-U.S. trade talks, and the Federal Reserve’s confirmation that it did not plan further interest rate hikes in 2019 allayed investor fears and drove U.S. markets substantially higher in the first quarter of the year. Global markets followed suit pretty much across the board delivering what some market participants described as a “V-shaped” recovery," This is how Evermore Global Value summarized the first quarter in its investor letter. We pay attention to what hedge funds are doing in a particular stock before considering a potential investment because it works for us. So let’s take a glance at the smart money sentiment towards one of the stocks hedge funds invest in.

Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS) has experienced a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money in recent months. Our calculations also showed that FTS isn't among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.

Hedge funds' reputation as shrewd investors has been tarnished in the last decade as their hedged returns couldn't keep up with the unhedged returns of the market indices. Our research has shown that hedge funds' large-cap stock picks indeed failed to beat the market between 1999 and 2016. However, we were 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'll significantly underperform the market. We have been tracking and sharing the list of these stocks since February 2017 and they lost 30.9% through May 30, 2019. That's why we believe hedge fund sentiment is an extremely useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.

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Paul Marshall of Marshall Wace[/caption]

We're going to take a gander at the fresh hedge fund action encompassing Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS).

How have hedgies been trading Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS)?

At Q1's end, a total of 13 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of -7% from the previous quarter. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards FTS over the last 15 quarters. So, let's find out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

Among these funds, Renaissance Technologies held the most valuable stake in Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS), which was worth $78.8 million at the end of the first quarter. On the second spot was Citadel Investment Group which amassed $71.3 million worth of shares. Moreover, GLG Partners, AQR Capital Management, and D E Shaw were also bullish on Fortis Inc. (NYSE:FTS), allocating a large percentage of their portfolios to this stock.