Is Allegion PLC (ALLE) a Good Stock to Buy?

Hedge Funds and other institutional investors have just completed filing their 13Fs with the Securities and Exchange Commission, revealing their equity portfolios as of the end of September. At Insider Monkey, we follow over 700 of the best-performing investors and by analyzing their 13F filings, we can determine the stocks that they are collectively bullish on. One of their picks is Allegion PLC (NYSE:ALLE), so let’s take a closer look at the sentiment that surrounds it in the current quarter.

Overall, Allegion PLC (NYSE:ALLE) has seen an increase in support from smart money investors tracked by us. At the end of this article we will also compare ALLE to other stocks including Mallinckrodt PLC (NYSE:MNK), CDW Corp (NASDAQ:CDW), and RPM International Inc. (NYSE:RPM) to get a better sense of its popularity.

Follow Allegion Plc (NYSE:ALLE)

At Insider Monkey, we’ve developed an investment strategy that has delivered market-beating returns over the past 12 months. Our strategy identifies the 100 best-performing funds of the previous quarter from among the collection of 700+ successful funds that we track in our database, which we accomplish using our returns methodology. We then study the portfolios of those 100 funds using the latest 13F data to uncover the 30 most popular mid-cap stocks (market caps of between $1 billion and $10 billion) among them to hold until the next filing period. This strategy delivered 18% gains over the past 12 months, more than doubling the 8% returns enjoyed by the S&P 500 ETFs.

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Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a gander at the new action encompassing Allegion PLC (NYSE:ALLE).

Hedge fund activity in Allegion PLC (NYSE:ALLE)

During the third quarter, the number of investors in the Insider Monkey database long Allegion inched up by 6% to 36. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).

HedgeFundSentimentChart

When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Select Equity Group, managed by Robert Joseph Caruso, holds the most valuable position in Allegion PLC (NYSE:ALLE). Select Equity Group has a $232.2 million position in the stock, comprising 2% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by John Griffin’s Blue Ridge Capital, which disclosed a $119.2 million position; the fund has 1.4% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other peers that hold long positions comprise Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP, John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors, and Principal Global Investors’ Columbus Circle Investors.

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Clinton Group, managed by George Hall, established the largest position in Allegion PLC (NYSE:ALLE). Clinton Group had $3.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Louis Bacon’s Moore Global Investments also made a $2.6 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new ALLE investors: Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management, Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management, and David Harding’s Winton Capital Management.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Allegion PLC (NYSE:ALLE) but similarly valued. These stocks are Mallinckrodt PLC (NYSE:MNK), CDW Corp (NASDAQ:CDW), RPM International Inc. (NYSE:RPM), and The Middleby Corporation (NASDAQ:MIDD). This group of stocks’ market values match ALLE’s market value.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
MNK 32 1444239 3
CDW 21 304636 -9
RPM 25 129774 4
MIDD 26 345362 7

As you can see these stocks had an average of 26 investors that held long positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $556 million, compared to $876 million in ALLE’s case. Mallinckrodt PLC (NYSE:MNK) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand CDW Corp (NASDAQ:CDW) is the least popular one with only 21 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Allegion PLC (NYSE:ALLE) 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.