Should You Avoid MKS Instruments, Inc. (MKSI)?

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Due to the fact that MKS Instruments, Inc. (NASDAQ:MKSI) has sustained a decline in interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, we can see that there exists a select few funds that elected to cut their full holdings between July and September. Intriguingly, Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital cashed in the largest stake of the 700 funds watched by Insider Monkey, totaling about $2.6 million in stock. John Overdeck and David Siegel’s fund, Two Sigma Advisors, also dumped its stock, about $1.8 million worth.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to MKS Instruments, Inc. (NASDAQ:MKSI). We will take a look at LPL Financial Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LPLA), REGAL-BELOIT CORPORATION (NYSE:RBC), Avista Corp (NYSE:AVA), and The Medicines Company (NASDAQ:MDCO). All of these stocks’ market caps resemble MKSI’s market cap.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
LPLA 12 964791 -1
RBC 21 158826 6
AVA 9 56026 -3
MDCO 27 584714 1

As you can see these stocks had an average of 17 investors with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $441 million. That figure was $238 million in MKSI’s case. The Medicines Company (NASDAQ:MDCO) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Avista Corp (NYSE:AVA) is the least popular one with only nine bullish hedge fund positions. MKS Instruments, Inc. (NASDAQ:MKSI) 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 The Medicines Company (NASDAQ:MDCO) might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: none

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