Is Five Below Inc (FIVE) a Good Stock To Buy?

As aggregate interest increased, some big names were breaking ground themselves. Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies established the largest position in Five Below Inc (NASDAQ:FIVE). Renaissance Technologies had $8.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Mark Broach’s Manatuck Hill Partners also initiated a $5.5 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Bruce Kovner’s Caxton Associates LP, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Five Below Inc (NASDAQ:FIVE) but similarly valued. These stocks are Brinker International, Inc. (NYSE:EAT), Papa John’s Int’l, Inc. (NASDAQ:PZZA), PRA Health Sciences Inc (NASDAQ:PRAH), and Tech Data Corp (NASDAQ:TECD). This group of stocks’ market caps resemble FIVE’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 20 funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $211 million. That figure was $107 million in FIVE’s case. PRA Health Sciences Inc (NASDAQ:PRAH) is the most popular stock in this table with 23 funds reporting long positions. On the other hand Papa John’s Int’l, Inc. (NASDAQ:PZZA) is the least popular one with only 14 investors holding shares. Five Below Inc (NASDAQ:FIVE) 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 PRA Health Sciences Inc (NASDAQ:PRAH) might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.