How salesforce.com and Other Hedge Fund Favorites Performed in Q2

Insider Monkey tracks hedge funds, billionaires, and prominent value investors for a very simple reason: their consensus picks generally outperform the market. We aren’t the only research shop broadcasting this fact using a bullhorn. Here is what strategist Ben Snider said in Goldman Sachs’ periodic hedge fund report:

“Despite the strong track record of popular hedge fund stocks, investors often view high ownership as a negative trait when evaluating stock prospects. Clients often ask us to include hedge fund ownership data in stock screens, expressing a preference for buying ‘under-owned’ stocks.”

“In fact, during the past decade hedge fund popularity has been a more useful criterion for selecting stocks than valuations…. The signals from hedge fund popularity and valuation have been particularly useful in combination, especially for investors with slightly longer investment horizons. During the past decade, popular stocks have generally outperformed unpopular stocks across both 3- and 12-month investment horizons” Snider concluded.

<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="It may sound like I am tooting my own horn, but Insider Monkey’s quarterly newsletter is actually superior to Goldman’s report. That’s because we separated the hedge fund favorites into long and short buckets. Our long bucket of hedge fund favorites returned 34.1% in the first half of 2019, whereas our short bucket of hedge fund favorites gained 21.4% during the same period. Hedge funds’ favorite top 20 stocks, on the other hand, returned 24% so far in 2019. You could have beaten the S&amp;P 500 Index funds by 5.7 percentage points by investing in hedge funds’ top 20 picks in 2019, whereas you could have outperformed the index funds by 15.8 percentage points if you invested in our top hedge fund picks. You can try out our newsletter free of charge for 14 days to see hedge funds’ latest best stock picks.” data-reactid=”14″>It may sound like I am tooting my own horn, but Insider Monkey’s quarterly newsletter is actually superior to Goldman’s report. That’s because we separated the hedge fund favorites into long and short buckets. Our long bucket of hedge fund favorites returned 34.1% in the first half of 2019, whereas our short bucket of hedge fund favorites gained 21.4% during the same period. Hedge funds’ favorite top 20 stocks, on the other hand, returned 24% so far in 2019. You could have beaten the S&P 500 Index funds by 5.7 percentage points by investing in hedge funds’ top 20 picks in 2019, whereas you could have outperformed the index funds by 15.8 percentage points if you invested in our top hedge fund picks. You can try out our newsletter free of charge for 14 days to see hedge funds’ latest best stock picks.

<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="The #15 most popular stock among the 743 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey was&nbsp;salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM).&nbsp;CRM was also the&nbsp;12th most popular stock among hedge funds at the end of December (see&nbsp;the&nbsp;30 most popular stocks among hedge funds).” data-reactid=”15″>The #15 most popular stock among the 743 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey was salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM). CRM was also the 12th most popular stock among hedge funds at the end of December (see the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds).

We have to warn you against indiscriminately imitating hedge funds’ all stock picks. Hedge funds’ top 20 stock picks outperformed the S&P 500 Index funds by 5.7 percentage points this year, but hedge funds’ top 500 stock picks had the same return as the S&P 500 Index this quarter. Investing in a hedge fund’s 35th best idea doesn’t give you the same return as investing in a hedge fund’s best idea.

Chase Coleman of Tiger Global

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<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="We're going to review the key hedge fund action regarding salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM).” data-reactid=”29″>We’re going to review the key hedge fund action regarding salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM).

How have hedgies been trading salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM)?

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 93 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of -6% from the fourth quarter of 2018. On the other hand, there were a total of 80 hedge funds with a bullish position in CRM a year ago. So, let’s check out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Fisher Asset Management, managed by Ken Fisher, holds the largest position in salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM). Fisher Asset Management has a $467.9 million position in the stock, comprising 0.6% of its 13F portfolio. On Fisher Asset Management’s heels is Ken Griffin of Citadel Investment Group, with a $378.2 million position; 0.2% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining members of the smart money with similar optimism contain Chase Coleman’s Tiger Global Management, Eashwar Krishnan’s Tybourne Capital Management and Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital.” data-reactid=”32″>When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Fisher Asset Management, managed by Ken Fisher, holds the largest position in salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM). Fisher Asset Management has a $467.9 million position in the stock, comprising 0.6% of its 13F portfolio. On Fisher Asset Management’s heels is Ken Griffin of Citadel Investment Group, with a $378.2 million position; 0.2% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining members of the smart money with similar optimism contain Chase Coleman’s Tiger Global Management, Eashwar Krishnan’s Tybourne Capital Management and Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital.

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