Is Apollo Commercial Real Est. Finance Inc (ARI) A Good Stock To Buy?

Seeing as Apollo Commercial Real Est. Finance Inc (NYSE:ARI) has experienced a declination in interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s safe to say that there were a few money managers that slashed their entire stakes last quarter. At the top of the heap, Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital cut the largest position of the 700 funds monitored by Insider Monkey, comprising close to $1.5 million in stock, and Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $0.4 million worth. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as total hedge fund interest fell by 2 funds last quarter.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Apollo Commercial Real Est. Finance Inc (NYSE:ARI). These stocks are Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation (NASDAQ:SWHC), Infinity Property and Casualty Corp. (NASDAQ:IPCC), Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ:CSIQ), and Repligen Corporation (NASDAQ:RGEN). This group of stocks’ market caps are similar to ARI’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 18.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $98 million. That figure was $40 million in ARI’s case. Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation (NASDAQ:SWHC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Infinity Property and Casualty Corp. (NASDAQ:IPCC) is the least popular one with only 8 bullish hedge fund positions. Apollo Commercial Real Est. Finance Inc (NYSE:ARI) 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 SWHC might be a better candidate to consider a long position.