Is Vista Outdoor Inc (VSTO) A Good Stock To Buy?

Since Vista Outdoor Inc (NYSE:VSTO) has faced falling interest from hedge fund managers, it’s easy to see that there lies a certain “tier” of hedgies that elected to cut their entire stakes heading into Q4. Intriguingly, Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management said goodbye to the largest stake of the 700 funds watched by Insider Monkey, valued at close to $8.3 million in stock, and David Dreman’s Dreman Value Management was right behind this move, as the fund cut about $3.9 million worth. These moves are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 2 funds heading into Q4.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Vista Outdoor Inc (NYSE:VSTO). We will take a look at Sensient Technologies Corporation (NYSE:SXT), Ciena Corporation (NASDAQ:CIEN), Dyax Corp. (NASDAQ:DYAX), and G-III Apparel Group, Ltd. (NASDAQ:GIII). All of these stocks’ market caps resemble VSTO’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 24.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $270 million. That figure was $814 million in VSTO’s case. Ciena Corporation (NASDAQ:CIEN) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Sensient Technologies Corporation (NYSE:SXT) is the least popular one with only 14 bullish hedge fund positions. Vista Outdoor Inc (NYSE:VSTO) 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 CIEN might be a better candidate to consider a long position.