Hedge Funds Are Betting On AptarGroup, Inc. (ATR)

As industrywide interest jumped, key hedge funds have been driving this bullishness. Adage Capital Management, managed by Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson, assembled the biggest position in AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR). Adage Capital Management had $13.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP also initiated a $7.3 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, Greg Poole’s Echo Street Capital Management, and Andrew Feldstein and Stephen Siderow’s Blue Mountain Capital.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR). We will take a look at Alere Inc (NYSE:ALR), Arista Networks Inc (NYSE:ANET), Columbia Sportswear Company (NASDAQ:COLM), and Diamondback Energy Inc (NASDAQ:FANG). This group of stocks’ market valuations are similar to ATR’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 30 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $591 million. That figure was $101 million in ATR’s case. Alere Inc (NYSE:ALR) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Columbia Sportswear Company (NASDAQ:COLM) is the least popular one with only 19 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR) is even less popular than COLM. 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.