This Is How Smart Money Is Trading Kaman Corporation (KAMN)

The Insider Monkey team has completed processing the quarterly 13F filings for the September quarter submitted by the hedge funds and other money managers included in our extensive database. Most hedge fund investors endured a turbulent quarter, which certainly propelled them to adjust their equity holdings so as to maintain their desired risk profile. As a result, the relevancy of these public filings and their content is indisputable, as they may reveal numerous high-potential stocks. The following article will discuss the smart money sentiment towards Kaman Corporation (NYSE:KAMN).

Kaman Corporation (NYSE:KAMN) has seen a decrease in hedge fund interest recently. Kaman Corporation (NYSE:KAMN) was in 15 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2015. There were 16 hedge funds in our database with Kaman Corporation (NYSE:KAMN) holdings 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 Consolidated Communications Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CNSL), B2Gold Corp (NYSEMKT:BTG), and Investors Real Estate Trust (NYSE:IRET) to gather more data points.

In today’s marketplace there are plenty of signals shareholders have at their disposal to appraise publicly traded companies. Some of the less utilized signals are hedge fund and insider trading signals. Experts at hedge fund tracking site Insider Monkey have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best money managers can outperform the broader indices by a healthy amount (see the details here).

Keeping this in mind, let’s take a gander at the latest action surrounding Kaman Corporation (NYSE:KAMN).

What does the smart money think about Kaman Corporation (NYSE:KAMN)?

Heading into Q4, a total of 15 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a decrease of 6% from the second quarter. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).

According to publicly available hedge fund holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors has the largest position in Kaman Corporation (NYSE:KAMN), worth close to $128.6 million, corresponding to 0.8% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Cardinal Capital, led by Amy Minella, holding a $33.3 million position; the fund has 2.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedgies that hold long positions include Chuck Royce’s mutual fund, Royce & Associates, Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management, and Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies.

Because Kaman Corporation (NYSE:KAMN) has faced bearish sentiment from hedge fund managers, logic holds that there was a specific group of hedge funds that slashed their entire stakes in the third quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Neil Chriss’ Hutchin Hill Capital dropped the largest investment of the 700 funds watched by Insider Monkey, valued at close to $0.7 million in stock, while Chao Ku of Nine Chapters Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund cut about $0.6 million worth of shares. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by one fund in the third quarter.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Kaman Corporation (NYSE:KAMN). We will take a look at Consolidated Communications Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CNSL), B2Gold Corp (NYSEMKT:BTG), Investors Real Estate Trust (NYSE:IRET), and Fortress Transprtn and Infr Investrs LLC (NYSE:FTAI). This group of stocks’ market valuations are closest to Kaman Corporation (NYSE:KAMN)’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 8 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $202 million, slightly higher than the $188 million invested in Kaman Corporation. Investors Real Estate Trust (NYSE:IRET) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Fortress Transprtn and Infr Investrs LLC (NYSE:FTAI) is the least popular one with only five bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Kaman Corporation (NYSE:KAMN) is more popular among hedge funds. Considering that hedge funds are fond of this stock in relation to its peers, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and potentially include it in your portfolio.