Hedge Funds Are Buying Speedway Motorsports, Inc. (TRK)

We at Insider Monkey have gone over 700 13F filings that hedge funds and prominent investors are required to file by the government. The 13F filings show the funds’ and investors’ portfolio positions as of September 30. In this article we look at what those investors think of Speedway Motorsports, Inc. (NYSE:TRK).

Is Speedway Motorsports, Inc. a buy, sell, or hold? The best stock pickers are buying. The number of long hedge fund positions advanced by 5 recently. TRK was in 15 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. There were 10 hedge funds in our database with TRK holdings at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of this article we will also compare TRK to other stocks, including Bona Film Group Ltd (ADR) (NASDAQ:BONA), Hecla Mining Company (NYSE:HL), and Cash America International, Inc. (NYSE:CSH) to get a better sense of its popularity.

In today’s marketplace there are tons of signals stock market investors employ to appraise publicly traded companies. Some of the most under-the-radar signals are hedge fund and insider trading indicators. Our experts have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite hedge fund managers can beat their index-focused peers by a healthy amount (see the details here).

Now, let’s view the fresh action regarding Speedway Motorsports, Inc. (NYSE:TRK).

What does the smart money think about Speedway Motorsports, Inc. (NYSE:TRK)?

At the end of the third quarter, a total of 15 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 50% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings considerably (or already accumulated large positions).

Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Zeke Ashton’s Centaur Capital Partners has the largest position in Speedway Motorsports, Inc. (NYSE:TRK), worth close to $3.8 million, comprising 5.8% of its total 13F portfolio. On Centaur Capital Partners’s heels is Marathon Partners, led by Mario Cibelli, holding a $3.2 million position; 1.4% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining professional money managers with similar optimism consist of Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies, Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management and J. Carlo Cannell’s Cannell Capital.

As aggregate interest increased, key money managers were breaking ground themselves. Hawk Ridge Management, managed by David Brown, established the most valuable position in Speedway Motorsports, Inc. (NYSE:TRK). Hawk Ridge Management had $1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Andy Redleaf’s Whitebox Advisors also made a $0.6 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new TRK investors: Ken Gray and Steve Walsh’s Bryn Mawr Capital, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, and Gavin Saitowitz and Cisco J. del Valle’s Springbok Capital.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Speedway Motorsports, Inc. (NYSE:TRK). We will take a look at Bona Film Group Ltd (ADR) (NASDAQ:BONA), Hecla Mining Company (NYSE:HL), Cash America International, Inc. (NYSE:CSH), and TriMas Corp (NASDAQ:TRS). This group of stocks’ market caps are closest to TRK’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 10 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $45 million, compared to $17 million in TRK’s case. TriMas Corp (NASDAQ:TRS) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand, Bona Film Group Ltd (ADR) (NASDAQ:BONA) is the least popular one with only 7 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Speedway Motorsports, Inc. (NYSE:TRK) is more popular among hedge funds. Considering that hedge funds are fond of this stock in relation to its market cap peers, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and potentially include it in your portfolio.