AECOM (ACM): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock?

Judging by the fact that AECOM (NYSE:ACM) has experienced a bearish sentiment from hedge fund managers, we can see that there were a few funds who were dropping their positions entirely heading into Q4. It’s worth mentioning that Alexander Roepers’s Atlantic Investment Management dumped the biggest stake of the 700 funds monitored by Insider Monkey, totaling an estimated $15.3 million in stock, and Eric Edidin and Josh Lobel’s Archer Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $9.4 million worth of shares. These bearish behaviors are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 5 funds heading into Q4.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as AECOM (NYSE:ACM) but similarly valued. These stocks are AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR), Alere Inc (NYSE:ALR), Arista Networks Inc (NYSE:ANET), and Columbia Sportswear Company (NASDAQ:COLM). This group of stocks’ market caps matches AECOM (NYSE:ACM)’s market cap.

As you can see, these stocks had an average of 25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $456 million. That figure was $448 million in AECOM (NYSE:ACM)’s case. Alere Inc (NYSE:ALR) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand, AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR) is the least popular one with only 18 bullish hedge fund positions. AECOM (NYSE:ACM) 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. In this regard, Alere Inc (NYSE:ALR) might be a better candidate to consider a long position.