Is Barrett Business Services, Inc. (BBSI) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds?

As one would reasonably expect, specific money managers have been driving this bullishness. PEAK6 Capital Management assembled the biggest call position in Barrett Business Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:BBSI). PEAK6 Capital Management had $1.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Algert Coldiron Investors also made a $1.1 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new BBSI positions are Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Barrett Business Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:BBSI) but similarly valued. We will take a look at STAAR Surgical Company (NASDAQ:STAA), KongZhong Corporation (ADR) (NASDAQ:KZ), Era Group Inc (NYSE:ERA), and Adamas Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ADMS). This group of stocks’ market values resemble BBSI’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 9 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $50 million, higher than the $14 million in BBSI’s case. Adamas Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ADMS) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand KongZhong Corporation(ADR) (NASDAQ:KZ) is the least popular one with only 4 bullish hedge fund positions. Barrett Business Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:BBSI) 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 ADMS might be a better candidate to consider a long position.