Is Autobytel Inc. (ABTL) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds?

Since Autobytel Inc. (NASDAQ:ABTL) has weathered bearish sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, logic holds that there were a few hedge funds who sold off their full holdings in the third quarter. At the top of the heap, Mark Broach’s Manatuck Hill Partners got rid of the largest stake of all the hedgies watched by Insider Monkey, worth close to $0.8 million in stock, and Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $0.2 million worth of shares.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Autobytel Inc. (NASDAQ:ABTL) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Gencor Industries, Inc. (DE) (NASDAQ:GENC), J Alexander’s Holdings Inc (NYSE:JAX), Kopin Corporation (NASDAQ:KOPN), and Zagg Inc (NASDAQ:ZAGG). All of these stocks’ market caps resemble ABTL’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 7 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $14 million. That figure was $38 million in ABTL’s case. J Alexander’s Holdings Inc (NYSE:JAX) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Kopin Corporation (NASDAQ:KOPN) is the least popular one with only 2 bullish hedge fund positions. Autobytel Inc. (NASDAQ:ABTL) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard JAX might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: None