Hedge Funds Aren’t Crazy About Commercial Vehicle Group, Inc. (CVGI) Anymore

Insider Monkey has processed numerous 13F filings of hedge funds and successful value investors to create an extensive database of hedge fund holdings. The 13F filings show the hedge funds’ and successful investors’ positions as of the end of the first quarter. You can find articles about an individual hedge fund’s trades on numerous financial news websites. However, in this article we will take a look at their collective moves over the last 4.5 years and analyze what the smart money thinks of Commercial Vehicle Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CVGI) based on that data.

Is Commercial Vehicle Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CVGI) a buy right now? Prominent investors are taking a pessimistic view. The number of long hedge fund bets were trimmed by 3 lately. Our calculations also showed that CVGI isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings and see the video for a quick look at the top 5 stocks).

Video: Watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.

According to most stock holders, hedge funds are seen as underperforming, old investment vehicles of years past. While there are greater than 8000 funds trading today, We look at the elite of this group, around 850 funds. These money managers shepherd most of the smart money’s total capital, and by tracking their highest performing stock picks, Insider Monkey has revealed a number of investment strategies that have historically outstripped the market. Insider Monkey’s flagship short hedge fund strategy outrun the S&P 500 short ETFs by around 20 percentage points annually since its inception in March 2017. Our portfolio of short stocks lost 36% since February 2017 (through May 18th) even though the market was up 30% during the same period. We just shared a list of 8 short targets in our latest quarterly update .

At Insider Monkey we leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, We take a look at lists like the 10 most profitable companies in the world to identify the compounders that are likely to deliver double digit returns. We interview hedge fund managers and ask them about their best ideas. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. For example we are checking out stocks recommended/scorned by legendary Bill Miller. Our best call in 2020 was shorting the market when the S&P 500 was trading at 3150 in February after realizing the coronavirus pandemic’s significance before most investors. Now let’s check out the fresh hedge fund action encompassing Commercial Vehicle Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CVGI).

What have hedge funds been doing with Commercial Vehicle Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CVGI)?

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 9 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of -25% from one quarter earlier. By comparison, 14 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in CVGI a year ago. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes significantly (or already accumulated large positions).

Among these funds, Renaissance Technologies held the most valuable stake in Commercial Vehicle Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CVGI), which was worth $3.8 million at the end of the third quarter. On the second spot was Royce & Associates which amassed $2.5 million worth of shares. AQR Capital Management, DC Capital Partners, and Arrowstreet Capital were also very fond of the stock, becoming one of the largest hedge fund holders of the company. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position DC Capital Partners allocated the biggest weight to Commercial Vehicle Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CVGI), around 5.03% of its 13F portfolio. Zebra Capital Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 0.06 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to CVGI.

Because Commercial Vehicle Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CVGI) has faced bearish sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s safe to say that there exists a select few fund managers who sold off their positions entirely last quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Israel Englander’s Millennium Management said goodbye to the largest stake of all the hedgies tracked by Insider Monkey, valued at an estimated $0.7 million in stock. Ken Griffin’s fund, Citadel Investment Group, also cut its stock, about $0.1 million worth. These moves are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 3 funds last quarter.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Commercial Vehicle Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CVGI). We will take a look at Horizon Global Corp (NYSE:HZN), Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises Inc (NYSE:BW), Penn Virginia Corporation (NASDAQ:PVAC), and Vista Gold Corp. (NYSE:VGZ). All of these stocks’ market caps resemble CVGI’s market cap.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 7.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $10 million. That figure was $9 million in CVGI’s case. Penn Virginia Corporation (NASDAQ:PVAC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Horizon Global Corp (NYSE:HZN) is the least popular one with only 3 bullish hedge fund positions. Commercial Vehicle Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CVGI) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our calculations showed that top 10 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 41.4% in 2019 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 10.1 percentage points. These stocks gained 13.4% in 2020 through June 22nd but still beat the market by 15.9 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on CVGI as the stock returned 59.6% in Q2 (through June 22nd) and outperformed the market. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.

Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.