First Eagle is Betting on National-Oilwell Varco (NOV) Stock

First Eagle Investment Management recently released its Q3 2020 Investor Letter, a copy of which you can download here. The First Eagle Global Fund A Shares posted a return of 5.64% for the third quarter (without sales charge), underperforming its benchmark, the MSCI World Index which returned 7.93% in the same quarter. You should check out First Eagle's top 5 stock picks for investors to buy right now, which could be the biggest winners of this year.

In the said letter, First Eagle highlighted a few stocks and National-Oilwell Varco Inc (NYSE:NOV) is one of them. National-Oilwell Varco Inc (NYSE:NOV) is an oilfield equipment manufacturer and technology provider. Year-to-date, National-Oilwell Varco Inc (NYSE:NOV) stock lost 67.7% and on October 29th it had a closing price of $8.10. Here is what First Eagle said:

"Shares of Texas-based National Oilwell Varco declined during the quarter. Energy producers—particularly American shale drillers—were forced to cut budgets in the face of slumping oil prices, reducing the company’s business in the process. Though oil production appears unlikely to pick up meaningfully in the near term, servicers like National Oilwell Varco may be able to take advantage of consolidation opportunities in what may become a structurally improved environment."

construction, drill, drilling, energy, equipment, exploration, fuel, gas, gasoline, holland, industrial, industry, maintenance, ocean, offshore, oil, petroleum, plant, platform, port, power, production, pump, refinery, rig, rotterdam, sea, sky, steel, technology, tower, well
construction, drill, drilling, energy, equipment, exploration, fuel, gas, gasoline, holland, industrial, industry, maintenance, ocean, offshore, oil, petroleum, plant, platform, port, power, production, pump, refinery, rig, rotterdam, sea, sky, steel, technology, tower, well

Copyright: 1971yes / 123RF Stock Photo

In Q2 2020, the number of bullish hedge fund positions on National-Oilwell Varco Inc (NYSE:NOV) stock increased by about 3% from the previous quarter (see the chart here), so a number of other hedge fund managers believe in NOV's growth potential. Our calculations showed that National-Oilwell Varco Inc (NYSE:NOV) isn't ranked among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.

The top 10 stocks among hedge funds returned 185% since the end of 2014 and outperformed the S&P 500 Index ETFs by more than 109 percentage points. We know it sounds unbelievable. You have been dismissing our articles about top hedge fund stocks mostly because you were fed biased information by other media outlets about hedge funds' poor performance. You could have doubled the size of your nest egg by investing in the top hedge fund stocks instead of dumb S&P 500 ETFs. Below you can watch our video about the top 5 hedge fund stocks right now. All of these stocks had positive returns in 2020.

Video: Top 5 Stocks Among Hedge Funds

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 10 most profitable companies in the world to pick the best large-cap stocks to buy. 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 enewsletter below to receive our stories in your inbox:

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