Hedge Funds Have Never Been This Bullish On Middlesex Water Company (MSEX)

Nina Todic

Fri, May 3, 2019, 6:27 PM

Insider Monkey has processed numerous 13F filings of hedge funds and famous investors to create an extensive database of hedge fund holdings. The 13F filings show the hedge funds' and investors' positions as of the end of the fourth quarter. You can find write-ups 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 and analyze what the smart money thinks of Middlesex Water Company (NASDAQ:MSEX) based on that data.

Middlesex Water Company (NASDAQ:MSEX) has seen an increase in activity from the world's largest hedge funds of late. MSEX was in 11 hedge funds' portfolios at the end of December. There were 9 hedge funds in our database with MSEX holdings at the end of the previous quarter. Our calculations also showed that msex isn't among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.

According to most traders, hedge funds are viewed as underperforming, old financial vehicles of yesteryear. While there are over 8000 funds with their doors open today, We look at the crème de la crème of this club, about 750 funds. These investment experts have their hands on the lion's share of the hedge fund industry's total asset base, and by watching their highest performing stock picks, Insider Monkey has brought to light a few investment strategies that have historically outperformed the broader indices. Insider Monkey's flagship hedge fund strategy outpaced the S&P 500 index by nearly 5 percentage points a year since its inception in May 2014 through early November 2018. We were able to generate large returns even by identifying short candidates. Our portfolio of short stocks lost 27.5% since February 2017 (through March 12th) even though the market was up nearly 25% during the same period. We just shared a list of 6 short targets in our latest quarterly update and they are already down an average of 6% in less than a month.

Let's check out the latest hedge fund action encompassing Middlesex Water Company (NASDAQ:MSEX).

Hedge fund activity in Middlesex Water Company (NASDAQ:MSEX)

Heading into the first quarter of 2019, a total of 11 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 22% from the previous quarter. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in MSEX over the last 14 quarters. With the smart money's sentiment swirling, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes significantly (or already accumulated large positions).

Among these funds, Renaissance Technologies held the most valuable stake in Middlesex Water Company (NASDAQ:MSEX), which was worth $32 million at the end of the fourth quarter. On the second spot was Impax Asset Management which amassed $10.3 million worth of shares. Moreover, GAMCO Investors, PEAK6 Capital Management, and GLG Partners were also bullish on Middlesex Water Company (NASDAQ:MSEX), allocating a large percentage of their portfolios to this stock.

As aggregate interest increased, key hedge funds have jumped into Middlesex Water Company (NASDAQ:MSEX) headfirst. Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, established the most valuable position in Middlesex Water Company (NASDAQ:MSEX). Citadel Investment Group had $0.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Roger Ibbotson's Zebra Capital Management also initiated a $0.2 million position during the quarter. The only other fund with a new position in the stock is Matthew Hulsizer's PEAK6 Capital Management.

Let's now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Middlesex Water Company (NASDAQ:MSEX). We will take a look at Boingo Wireless Inc (NASDAQ:WIFI), Carbonite Inc (NASDAQ:CARB), ARMOUR Residential REIT, Inc. (NYSE:ARR), and Northern Oil & Gas, Inc. (NYSE:NOG). This group of stocks' market valuations are similar to MSEX's market valuation.

[table] Ticker, No of HFs with positions, Total Value of HF Positions (x1000), Change in HF Position WIFI,18,125999,1 CARB,16,108510,-1 ARR,5,12194,2 NOG,16,103063,-1 Average,13.75,87442,0.25 [/table]

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 13.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $87 million. That figure was $49 million in MSEX's case. Boingo Wireless Inc (NASDAQ:WIFI) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand ARMOUR Residential REIT, Inc. (NYSE:ARR) is the least popular one with only 5 bullish hedge fund positions. Middlesex Water Company (NASDAQ:MSEX) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. 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 15 most popular stocks) among hedge funds returned 24.2% through April 22nd and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by more than 7 percentage points. Unfortunately MSEX wasn't nearly as popular as these 15 stock (hedge fund sentiment was quite bearish); MSEX investors were disappointed as the stock returned 1.3% and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 15 most popular stocks) among hedge funds as 13 of these stocks already outperformed the market this year.

Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.

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