What Smart Money Thinks about Belden Inc. (BDC)

Now, key hedge funds were leading the bulls’ herd. Arrowstreet Capital, led by Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell, created the largest position in Belden Inc. (NYSE:BDC). Arrowstreet Capital had $5.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management also made a $1.8 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new BDC investors: Phil Frohlich’s Prescott Group Capital Management, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, and Joshua Packwood and Schuster Tanger’s Radix Partners.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Belden Inc. (NYSE:BDC) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Five Below Inc (NASDAQ:FIVE), Brinker International, Inc. (NYSE:EAT), Papa John’s Int’l, Inc. (NASDAQ:PZZA), and PRA Health Sciences Inc (NASDAQ:PRAH). This group of stocks’ market caps resemble BDC’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 19 investors with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $165 million. That figure was $99 million in BDC’s case. PRA Health Sciences Inc (NASDAQ:PRAH) is the most popular stock in this table, while Papa John’s Int’l, Inc. (NASDAQ:PZZA) is the least popular one with only 14 bullish hedge fund positions. Belden Inc. (NYSE:BDC) 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 PRA Health Sciences Inc (NASDAQ:PRAH) might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.