West Marine, Inc. (WMAR): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock?

Seeing as West Marine, Inc. (NASDAQ:WMAR) has witnessed falling interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, we can see that there is a sect of money managers that slashed their entire stakes in the third quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Ken Gray and Steve Walsh’s Bryn Mawr Capital sold off the biggest stake of the 700 funds followed by Insider Monkey, valued at about $0.4 million in stock, and Ken Grossman and Glen Schneider’s SG Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund dropped about $0.1 million worth. These moves are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 2 funds in the third quarter.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to West Marine, Inc. (NASDAQ:WMAR). These stocks are CECO Environmental Corp. (NASDAQ:CECE), LeMaitre Vascular Inc (NASDAQ:LMAT), Lipocine Inc (NASDAQ:LPCN), and VSE Corporation (NASDAQ:VSEC). This group of stocks’ market valuations are similar to WMAR’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 10.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $27 million. That figure was $30 million in WMAR’s case. CECO Environmental Corp. (NASDAQ:CECE) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand VSE Corporation (NASDAQ:VSEC) is the least popular one with only 5 bullish hedge fund positions. West Marine, Inc. (NASDAQ:WMAR) 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 CECE might be a better candidate to consider a long position.