What Do Hedge Funds Think of Tegna Inc (TGNA)?

After several tireless days we have finished crunching the numbers from the more than 700 13F filings issued by the elite hedge funds and other investment firms that we track at Insider Monkey, which disclosed those firms’ equity portfolios as of September 30. The results of that effort will be put on display in this article, as we share valuable insight into the smart money sentiment towards Tegna Inc (NYSE:TGNA).

Tegna Inc (NYSE:TGNA) has experienced an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds lately. TGNA was in 21 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. There were 20 hedge funds in our database with TGNA positions 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 Tyler Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:TYL), Community Health Systems (NYSE:CYH), and TFS Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:TFSL) to gather more data points.

In the financial world there are tons of metrics shareholders put to use to value publicly traded companies. A couple of the less utilized metrics are hedge fund and insider trading signals. Our researchers have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best fund managers can outperform their index-focused peers by a solid margin (see the details here).

With all of this in mind, we’re going to take a gander at the new action encompassing Tegna Inc (NYSE:TGNA).

What does the smart money think about Tegna Inc (NYSE:TGNA)?

At Q3’s end, a total of 21 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 5% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).

When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Carl Icahn’s Icahn Capital LP has the biggest position in Tegna Inc (NYSE:TGNA), worth close to $480 million, accounting for 1.7% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is AQR Capital Management, led by Cliff Asness, holding a $90.2 million position; 0.2% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other peers that are bullish comprise David Harding’s Winton Capital Management, Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management and Dennis Leibowitz’s Act II Capital.

As one would reasonably expect, key money managers were breaking ground themselves. Overland Advisors, managed by Gordy Holterman and Derek Dunn, created the most outsized position in Tegna Inc (NYSE:TGNA). Overland Advisors had $4.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital also initiated a $4.2 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new TGNA investors: Paul Tudor Jones’ Tudor Investment Corp, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, and Andre F. Perold’s HighVista Strategies.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Tegna Inc (NYSE:TGNA). These stocks are Tyler Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:TYL), Community Health Systems (NYSE:CYH), TFS Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:TFSL), and Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF). All of these stocks’ market caps resemble TGNA’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 29.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $803 million. That figure was $1012 million in TGNA’s case. Community Health Systems (NYSE:CYH) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Tyler Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:TYL) is the least popular one with only 13 bullish hedge fund positions. Tegna Inc (NYSE:TGNA) 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 CYH might be a better candidate to consider a long position.