Is Inogen Inc (INGN) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds?

Is Inogen Inc (NASDAQ:INGN) a good place to invest some of your money right now? We can gain invaluable insight to help us answer that question by studying the investment trends of top investors, who employ world-class Ivy League graduates, who are given immense resources and industry contacts to put their financial expertise to work. The top picks of these firms have historically outperformed the market when we account for known risk factors, making them very valuable investment ideas.

Inogen Inc (NASDAQ:INGN) was in 18 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. Inogen Inc (NASDAQ:INGN) investors should pay attention to an increase in support from the world’s most elite money managers in recent months. There were 16 hedge funds in our database with Inogen Inc (NASDAQ:INGN) positions at the end of the previous quarter. The level and the change in hedge fund popularity aren’t the only variables you need to analyze to decipher hedge funds’ perspectives. A stock may witness a boost in popularity, but it may still be less popular than similarly priced stocks. That’s why at the end of this article we will examine companies such as Changyou.Com Ltd (ADR) (NASDAQ:CYOU), NetGear, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTGR), and Encore Capital Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:ECPG) to gather more data points.

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To the average investor, there is a multitude of tools investors put to use to evaluate their stock investments. A couple of the most useful tools are hedge fund and insider trading moves. We have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the top investment managers can beat their index-focused peers by a superb margin (see the details here).

With all of this in mind, let’s go over the new action regarding Inogen Inc (NASDAQ:INGN).

How are hedge funds trading Inogen Inc (NASDAQ:INGN)?

At the end of September, a total of 18 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, an increase of 13% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings considerably (or already accumulated large positions).

Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Renaissance Technologies has the number one position in Inogen Inc (NASDAQ:INGN), worth close to $20.4 million, amounting to less than 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Columbus Circle Investors, led by Clifford Fox, holding a $15.4 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Hedge funds and other institutional investors that are bullish comprise Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates, Richard Driehaus’ Driehaus Capital and Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management.

As one would reasonably expect, key money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Driehaus Capital initiated the largest position in Inogen Inc (NASDAQ:INGN). Driehaus Capital had $11.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Point72 Asset Management also initiated a $10.7 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new INGN positions are Brian Ashford-Russell and Tim Woolley’s Polar Capital, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, and David Costen Haley’s HBK Investments.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Inogen Inc (NASDAQ:INGN). We will take a look at Changyou.Com Ltd (ADR) (NASDAQ:CYOU), NetGear, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTGR), Encore Capital Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:ECPG), and Inphi Corporation (NYSE:IPHI). This group of stocks’ market caps is closest to Inogen Inc (NASDAQ:INGN)’s market cap.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
CYOU 9 13441 -3
NTGR 20 99055 9
ECPG 10 79614 -2
IPHI 19 73384 5

As you can see, these stocks had an average of 15 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $66 million. That figure was $90 million in Inogen Inc (NASDAQ:INGN)’s case. NetGear, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTGR) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand, Changyou.Com Ltd (ADR) (NASDAQ:CYOU) is the least popular one with only 9 bullish hedge fund positions. Inogen Inc (NASDAQ:INGN) 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, NetGear, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTGR) might be a better candidate to consider a long position.