With the third-quarter round of 13F filings behind us it is time to take a look at the stocks in which some of the best money managers in the world preferred to invest or sell heading into the fourth quarter. One of these stocks was Gold Standard Ventures Corp (NYSE:GSV).
Is GSV a good stock to buy now? The best stock pickers were in a bullish mood. The number of long hedge fund bets increased by 2 recently. Gold Standard Ventures Corp (NYSE:GSV) was in 7 hedge funds' portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2020. The all time high for this statistics is 6. This means the bullish number of hedge fund positions in this stock currently sits at its all time high. Our calculations also showed that GSV isn't among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings and see the video for a quick look at the top 5 stocks). There were 5 hedge funds in our database with GSV holdings at the end of June.
Video: Watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.
According to most traders, hedge funds are seen as slow, outdated financial tools of the past. While there are more than 8000 funds in operation at present, Our researchers choose to focus on the top tier of this club, about 850 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group of people command the lion's share of the smart money's total asset base, and by observing their best investments, Insider Monkey has figured out various investment strategies that have historically outstripped Mr. Market. Insider Monkey's flagship short hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 short ETFs by around 20 percentage points annually since its inception in March 2017. Our portfolio of short stocks lost 13% since February 2017 (through November 17th) even though the market was up 65% during the same period. We just shared a list of 6 short targets in our latest quarterly update .
Eric Sprott Sprott Asset Management
Eric Sprott of Sprott Asset Management
At Insider Monkey we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, Federal Reserve has been creating trillions of dollars electronically to keep the interest rates near zero. We believe this will lead to inflation and boost real estate prices. So, we recommended this real estate stock to our monthly premium newsletter subscribers. We go through lists like the 5 best cheap stocks to buy according to Ray Dalio to identify stocks with upside potential. 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 website. With all of this in mind we're going to review the latest hedge fund action encompassing Gold Standard Ventures Corp (NYSE:GSV).
How have hedgies been trading Gold Standard Ventures Corp (NYSE:GSV)?
At the end of the third quarter, a total of 7 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 40% from one quarter earlier. On the other hand, there were a total of 2 hedge funds with a bullish position in GSV a year ago. 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, Sun Valley Gold held the most valuable stake in Gold Standard Ventures Corp (NYSE:GSV), which was worth $13.6 million at the end of the third quarter. On the second spot was Sprott Asset Management which amassed $7.1 million worth of shares. Renaissance Technologies, Invenomic Capital Management, and Citadel Investment Group 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 Sun Valley Gold allocated the biggest weight to Gold Standard Ventures Corp (NYSE:GSV), around 5.91% of its 13F portfolio. Sprott Asset Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, setting aside 0.29 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to GSV.
As aggregate interest increased, key hedge funds have jumped into Gold Standard Ventures Corp (NYSE:GSV) headfirst. Sun Valley Gold, managed by Peter Franklin Palmedo, established the biggest position in Gold Standard Ventures Corp (NYSE:GSV). Sun Valley Gold had $13.6 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. John Overdeck and David Siegel's Two Sigma Advisors also initiated a $0.2 million position during the quarter. The only other fund with a brand new GSV position is Israel Englander's Millennium Management.
Let's now review hedge fund activity in other stocks - not necessarily in the same industry as Gold Standard Ventures Corp (NYSE:GSV) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Lannett Company, Inc. (NYSE:LCI), Paratek Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:PRTK), America First Multifamily Investors, L.P. (NASDAQ:ATAX), Rafael Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:RFL), Atlantic Capital Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACBI), Tecnoglass Inc. (NASDAQ:TGLS), and Cross Country Healthcare, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCRN). This group of stocks' market caps are closest to GSV's market cap.
[table] Ticker, No of HFs with positions, Total Value of HF Positions (x1000), Change in HF Position LCI,10,26062,1 PRTK,9,19459,-3 ATAX,1,607,-1 RFL,5,27053,0 ACBI,14,35844,0 TGLS,3,6551,-1 CCRN,15,22935,3 Average,8.1,19787,-0.1 [/table]
As you can see these stocks had an average of 8.1 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $20 million. That figure was $22 million in GSV's case. Cross Country Healthcare, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCRN) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand America First Multifamily Investors, L.P. (NASDAQ:ATAX) is the least popular one with only 1 bullish hedge fund positions. Gold Standard Ventures Corp (NYSE:GSV) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for GSV is 58.4. 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. This is a slightly negative signal and we'd rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. Our calculations showed that top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 41.3% in 2019 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 10 percentage points. These stocks gained 31.6% in 2020 through December 2nd and surpassed the market again by 16 percentage points. Unfortunately GSV wasn't nearly as popular as these 20 stocks (hedge fund sentiment was quite bearish); GSV investors were disappointed as the stock returned -10.3% since the end of September (through 12/2) and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds as most of these stocks already outperformed the market in 2020.
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
