Should You Avoid Cintas Corporation (CTAS)?

Due to the fact that Cintas Corporation (NASDAQ:CTAS) has experienced a falling interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, logic holds that there were a few fund managers that elected to cut their positions entirely by the end of the third quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management sold off the largest position of the 700 funds monitored by Insider Monkey, totaling an estimated $16.7 million in stock. Andy Redleaf’s fund, Whitebox Advisors, also dumped its stock, about $3 million worth of shares. These moves are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 1 funds by the end of the third quarter.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Cintas Corporation (NASDAQ:CTAS) but similarly valued. These stocks are Cna Financial Corp (NYSE:CNA), Federal Realty Investment Trust (NYSE:FRT), BorgWarner Inc. (NYSE:BWA), and The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU). All of these stocks’ market caps are closest to Cintas Corporation (NASDAQ:CTAS)’s market cap.

As you can see, these stocks had an average of 20 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $407 million. That figure was $1.04 billion in Cintas Corporation (NASDAQ:CTAS)’s case. BorgWarner Inc. (NYSE:BWA) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand, Cna Financial Corp (NYSE:CNA) is the least popular one with only 11 bullish hedge fund positions. Cintas Corporation (NASDAQ:CTAS) 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, BorgWarner Inc. (NYSE:BWA) might be a better candidate to consider a long position.