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 funds think of NTELOS Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:NTLS) based on that data.
NTELOS Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:NTLS) investors should pay attention to a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money recently. NTLS was in 13 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2015. There were 16 hedge funds in our database with NTLS holdings at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of this article we will also compare NTLS to other stocks, including Nivalis Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:NVLS), Preformed Line Products Company (NASDAQ:PLPC), and Zagg Inc (NASDAQ:ZAGG) to get a better sense of its popularity.
Follow Ntelos Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:NTLS)
Follow Ntelos Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:NTLS)
In the eyes of most stock holders, hedge funds are seen as slow, outdated financial tools of years past. While there are greater than 8000 funds in operation at present, Our experts look at the leaders of this group, around 700 funds. These investment experts watch over the lion’s share of the smart money’s total capital, and by keeping an eye on their top picks, Insider Monkey has unearthed several investment strategies that have historically surpassed the S&P 500 index. Insider Monkey’s small-cap hedge fund strategy defeated the S&P 500 index by 12 percentage points a year for a decade in their back tests.
With all of this in mind, we’re going to take a look at the fresh action surrounding NTELOS Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:NTLS).
Hedge fund activity in NTELOS Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:NTLS)
Heading into Q4, a total of 13 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of -19% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).
When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, GMT Capital, managed by Thomas E. Claugus, holds the number one position in NTELOS Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:NTLS). GMT Capital has a $14.8 million position in the stock, comprising 0.4% of its 13F portfolio. The second most bullish fund manager is Renaissance Technologies, holding a $9.7 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other peers that are bullish contain Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP, Gavin Saitowitz and Cisco J. del Valle’s Springbok Capital and Joseph Mathias’s Concourse Capital Management.
Seeing as NTELOS Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:NTLS) has experienced bearish sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s safe to say that there lies a certain “tier” of fund managers who sold off their entire stakes last quarter. Interestingly, Bart Baum’s Ionic Capital Management dropped the biggest investment of the “upper crust” of funds followed by Insider Monkey, valued at about $4.8 million in stock. Mike Vranos’s fund, Ellington, also dumped its stake, about $0.5 million worth. These moves are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 3 funds last quarter.
Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to NTELOS Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:NTLS). We will take a look at Nivalis Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:NVLS), Preformed Line Products Company (NASDAQ:PLPC), Zagg Inc (NASDAQ:ZAGG), and Regional Management Corp (NYSE:RM). All of these stocks’ market caps are similar to NTLS’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVLS | 19 | 100720 | 4 |
| PLPC | 4 | 26326 | 1 |
| ZAGG | 14 | 20725 | 0 |
| RM | 18 | 70063 | 1 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 14 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $54 million. That figure was $30 million in NTLS’s case. Nivalis Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:NVLS) is the most popular stock in this table, while Preformed Line Products Company (NASDAQ:PLPC) is the least popular one with only 4 bullish hedge fund positions. NTELOS Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:NTLS) 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 NVLS might be a better candidate to consider a long position.
