Hedge Funds Are Betting On FleetMatics Group PLC (FLTX)

As we already know from media reports and hedge fund investor letters, many hedge funds lost money in the third quarter, blaming macroeconomic conditions and unpredictable events that hit several sectors, with healthcare among them. Nevertheless, most investors decided to stick to their bullish theses and their long-term focus allows us to profit from the recent declines. In particular, let’s take a look at what hedge funds think about FleetMatics Group PLC (NYSE:FLTX) in this article.

FleetMatics Group PLC (NYSE:FLTX) is engaged in providing health management solutions. The stock is up by 41% since the beginning of the year and hedge funds are taking an optimistic view. The number of long hedge fund positions has inched up by 1 recently. FLTX was in 13 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2015. The level and the change in hedge fund popularity aren’t the only variables you need to analyze to decipher hedge funds’ perspectives. A stock may witness a boost in popularity, but it may still be less popular than similarly priced stocks. That’s why at the end of this article we will examine companies such as Teekay LNG Partners L.P. (NYSE:TGP), InterXion Holding NV (NYSE:INXN), and Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) to gather more data points.

In the financial world there are a lot of signals market participants have at their disposal to grade their holdings. Two of the less utilized signals are hedge fund and insider trading interest. Our researchers have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best investment managers can outclass the market by a significant margin (see the details here).

Now, let’s take a glance at the key action encompassing FleetMatics Group PLC (NYSE:FLTX).

What have hedge funds been doing with FleetMatics Group PLC (NYSE:FLTX)?

At the Q3’s end, a total of 13 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 8% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes considerably (or already accumulated large positions).

According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Weatherbie Capital, managed by Matthew A. Weatherbie, holds the most valuable position in FleetMatics Group PLC (NYSE:FLTX). Weatherbie Capital has an $29 million position in the stock, comprising 3.4% of its 13F portfolio. On Weatherbie Capital’s heels is ShearLink Capital, led by Vivek Mehta and Aaron Husock, holding an $17.9 million position; 7.9% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other hedge funds and institutional investors that are bullish comprise Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies, Lee Munder’s Lee Munder Capital Group, and Cliff Asness’ AQR Capital Management.

As one would reasonably expect, specific money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. PEAK6 Capital Management, managed by Matthew Hulsizer, assembled the largest position in FleetMatics Group PLC (NYSE:FLTX). PEAK6 Capital Management had $0.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital also made an $0.5 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp and Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to FleetMatics Group PLC (NYSE:FLTX). We will take a look at Teekay LNG Partners L.P. (NYSE:TGP), InterXion Holding NV (NYSE:INXN), Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA), and Bitauto Hldg Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:BITA). This group of stocks’ market caps resemble FLTX’s market cap.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
TGP 7 13512 1
INXN 31 881807 -6
PEGA 18 138052 1
BITA 9 144993 -8

As you can see these stocks had an average of 16 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $295 million. That figure was just $69 million in FLTX’s case. InterXion Holding NV (NYSE:INXN) is the most popular stock in this table with a total of 31 funds reporting long positions. On the other hand Teekay LNG Partners L.P. (NYSE:TGP) is the least popular one with only 7 bullish hedge fund positions. FleetMatics Group PLC (NYSE:FLTX) 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 INXN might be a better candidate to consider a long position.