Hedge Funds Aren’t Crazy About John Bean Technologies Corp (JBT) Anymore

Seeing as John Bean Technologies Corp (NYSE:JBT) has weathered falling interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, we can see that there were a few funds who sold off their entire stakes in the third quarter. Intriguingly, Anand Parekh’s Alyeska Investment Group cut the biggest position of the 700 funds monitored by Insider Monkey, worth an estimated $12.8 million in stock. Jim Simons’ fund, Renaissance Technologies, also sold off its stock, about $3.9 million worth.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as John Bean Technologies Corp (NYSE:JBT) but similarly valued. We will take a look at RealPage, Inc. (NASDAQ:RP), Wright Medical Group Inc (NASDAQ:WMGI), Exelixis, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXEL), and Northwest Natural Gas Co (NYSE:NWN). This group of stocks’ market valuations are closest to JBT’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 26 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $368 million. That figure was $84 million in JBT’s case. Exelixis, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXEL) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Northwest Natural Gas Co (NYSE:NWN) is the least popular one with only 12 bullish hedge fund positions. John Bean Technologies Corp (NYSE:JBT) 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 EXEL might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: None