Do Hedge Funds Love Benefitfocus Inc (BNFT)?

Seeing as Benefitfocus Inc (NASDAQ:BNFT) has faced a declination in interest from the smart money, we can see that there is a sect of hedge funds who were dropping their positions entirely heading into Q4. At the top of the heap, Renaissance Technologies dumped the biggest stake of the “upper crust” of funds tracked by Insider Monkey, totaling an estimated $1.3 million in stock. Matthew Hulsizer’s fund, PEAK6 Capital Management, also said goodbye to its stock, about $0.2 million worth of shares. These transactions are interesting, as total hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Benefitfocus Inc (NASDAQ:BNFT) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Qualys Inc (NASDAQ:QLYS), TowneBank (NASDAQ:TOWN), iKang Healthcare Group Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:KANG), and Bob Evans Farms Inc (NASDAQ:BOBE). This group of stocks’ market caps is similar to Benefitfocus Inc (NASDAQ:BNFT)’s market cap.

As you can see, these stocks had an average of 14 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $92 million. That figure was $19 million in Benefitfocus Inc (NASDAQ:BNFT)’s case. Bob Evans Farms Inc (NASDAQ:BOBE) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand, TowneBank (NASDAQ:TOWN) is the least popular one with only 8 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks, Benefitfocus Inc (NASDAQ:BNFT) is even less popular than TowneBank (NASDAQ:TOWN). Considering that hedge funds aren’t fond of this stock in relation to other companies analyzed in this article, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and understand why the smart money isn’t behind this stock. This isn’t necessarily bad news. Although it is possible that hedge funds may think the stock is overpriced and view the stock as a short candidate, they may not be very familiar with the bullish thesis. In either case, more research is warranted.