Is AVX Corporation (AVX) A Good Stock To Buy?

As industrywide interest jumped, specific money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Hutchin Hill Capital, led by Neil Chriss, initiated the most valuable position in AVX Corporation (NYSE:AVX). According to regulatory filings, the fund had $0.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management also made a $0.4 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Mike Vranos’s Ellington and Peter Muller’s PDT Partners.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to AVX Corporation (NYSE:AVX). We will take a look at Mentor Graphics Corp (NASDAQ:MENT), Franks International NV (NYSE:FI), National General Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:NGHC), and South Jersey Industries Inc (NYSE:SJI). This group of stocks’ market values match AVX’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 18 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $175 million. That figure was $164 million in AVX’s case. Mentor Graphics Corp (NASDAQ:MENT) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand South Jersey Industries Inc (NYSE:SJI) is the least popular one with only 8 bullish hedge fund positions. AVX Corporation (NYSE:AVX) 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 MENT might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: none.