Before we spend countless hours researching a company, we'd like to analyze what insiders, hedge funds and billionaire investors think of the stock first. We would like to do so because our research has shown that the elite investors' consensus returns have been exceptional. In the following paragraphs, we find out what the billionaire investors and hedge funds think of AmerisourceBergen Corporation (NYSE:ABC).
AmerisourceBergen Corporation (NYSE:ABC) was in 34 hedge funds' portfolios at the end of the fourth quarter of 2018. ABC investors should pay attention to an increase in support from the world's most elite money managers lately. There were 32 hedge funds in our database with ABC holdings at the end of the previous quarter. Our calculations also showed that ABC isn't among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.
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 flagship best performing hedge funds strategy returned 20.7% year to date (through March 12th) and outperformed the market even though it draws its stock picks among small-cap stocks. This strategy also outperformed the market by 32 percentage points since its inception (see the details here). That's why we believe hedge fund sentiment is a useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.
Let's take a glance at the key hedge fund action surrounding AmerisourceBergen Corporation (NYSE:ABC).
Hedge fund activity in AmerisourceBergen Corporation (NYSE:ABC)
At Q4's end, a total of 34 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 6% from the second quarter of 2018. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards ABC over the last 14 quarters. With hedgies' positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an "upper tier" of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes significantly (or already accumulated large positions).
More specifically, Baupost Group was the largest shareholder of AmerisourceBergen Corporation (NYSE:ABC), with a stake worth $149.9 million reported as of the end of September. Trailing Baupost Group was Millennium Management, which amassed a stake valued at $48.5 million. HBK Investments, Arrowstreet Capital, and Bridgewater Associates were also very fond of the stock, giving the stock large weights in their portfolios.