Insider Monkey has processed numerous 13F filings of hedge funds and successful value investors to create an extensive database of hedge fund holdings. The 13F filings show the hedge funds' and successful investors' positions as of the end of the fourth quarter. You can find articles about an individual hedge fund's trades on numerous financial news websites. However, in this article we will take a look at their collective moves over the last 6 years and analyze what the smart money thinks of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) based on that data.
Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) was in 68 hedge funds' portfolios at the end of March. The all time high for this statistic was previously 61. This means the bullish number of hedge fund positions in this stock currently sits at its all time high. FCX investors should be aware of an increase in activity from the world's largest hedge funds of late. There were 61 hedge funds in our database with FCX positions at the end of the fourth quarter. Our calculations also showed that FCX isn't among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings).
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. Hedge funds have more than $3.5 trillion in assets under management, so you can't expect their entire portfolios to beat the market by large margins. Our research was able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by more than 115 percentage points since March 2017 (see the details here). So you can still find a lot of gems by following hedge funds' moves today.
Stanley Druckenmiller of Duquesne Capital
At Insider Monkey we leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, advertising technology one of the fastest growing industries right now, so we are checking out stock pitches like this under-the-radar adtech stock that can deliver 10x gains. We go through lists like the 10 best hydrogen fuel cell stocks to pick the next Tesla that will deliver a 10x return. 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. With all of this in mind we're going to check out the latest hedge fund action encompassing Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX).
Do Hedge Funds Think FCX Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
At the end of the first quarter, a total of 68 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 11% from the fourth quarter of 2020. On the other hand, there were a total of 42 hedge funds with a bullish position in FCX a year ago. With hedgies' capital changing hands, there exists an "upper tier" of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings substantially (or already accumulated large positions).
Among these funds, Fisher Asset Management held the most valuable stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX), which was worth $1458.8 million at the end of the fourth quarter. On the second spot was Lansdowne Partners which amassed $223.3 million worth of shares. Duquesne Capital, Citadel Investment Group, and Platinum Asset Management were also very fond of the stock, becoming one of the largest hedge fund holders of the company. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Prince Street Capital Management allocated the biggest weight to Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX), around 18.26% of its 13F portfolio. Lansdowne Partners is also relatively very bullish on the stock, setting aside 7.27 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to FCX.
As aggregate interest increased, some big names were breaking ground themselves. Holocene Advisors, managed by Brandon Haley, initiated the biggest position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX). Holocene Advisors had $47.6 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Steven Tananbaum's GoldenTree Asset Management also initiated a $38.1 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new FCX investors: Josh Donfeld and David Rogers's Castle Hook Partners, Gilchrist Berg's Water Street Capital, and Zach Schreiber's Point State Capital.
Let's also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F), ING Groep N.V. (NYSE:ING), Dow Inc. (NYSE:DOW), Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA), Kimberly Clark Corporation (NYSE:KMB), Pinterest, Inc. (NYSE:PINS), and Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS). All of these stocks' market caps resemble FCX's market cap.
[table] Ticker, No of HFs with positions, Total Value of HF Positions (x1000), Change in HF Position F,49,2197658,8 ING,10,532082,1 DOW,41,717981,-6 WBA,41,1132820,5 KMB,31,1287433,-6 PINS,83,4189031,-12 LVS,62,2441021,-1 Average,45.3,1785432,-1.6 [/table]
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 45.3 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1785 million. That figure was $3291 million in FCX's case. Pinterest, Inc. (NYSE:PINS) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand ING Groep N.V. (NYSE:ING) is the least popular one with only 10 bullish hedge fund positions. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for FCX is 79.7. 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 17.2% in 2021 through June 11th and still beat the market by 3.3 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on FCX as the stock returned 24.3% since the end of Q1 (through 6/11) and outperformed the market. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
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