Why Stratasys, Ltd. (SSYS) Is Trading Higher on Tuesday?

According to Insider Monkey’s hedge fund database, Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management has the largest position in Stratasys, Ltd. (NASDAQ:SSYS), worth close to $76.6 million, corresponding to 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. The second most bullish fund manager is Coatue Management, led by Philippe Laffont, which holds a $11 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedge funds and institutional investors with similar optimism contain D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, Michael Doheny’s Freshford Capital Management and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

Now, specific money managers have jumped into Stratasys, Ltd. (NASDAQ:SSYS) headfirst. Renaissance Technologies, founded by billionaire Jim Simons, established the biggest position in Stratasys, Ltd. (NASDAQ:SSYS). Renaissance Technologies had $3.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Israel Englander’s Millennium Management also initiated a $1.3 million position during the first quarter. The other funds with brand new SSYS positions are Richard Driehaus’s Driehaus Capital, Mike Vranos’s Ellington, and Richard Schimel’s Sterling Ridge Capital Management.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Stratasys, Ltd. (NASDAQ:SSYS), but similarly valued. We will take a look at Brady Corp (NYSE:BRC), BofI Holding, Inc. (NASDAQ:BOFI), Ebix Inc (NASDAQ:EBIX), and TeleTech Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTEC). This group of stocks’ market values match SSYS’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 14 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $118 million. That figure was $139 million in SSYS’s case. BofI Holding, Inc. (NASDAQ:BOFI) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand, Ebix Inc (NASDAQ:EBIX) is the least popular one with only 12 bullish hedge fund positions. Stratasys, Ltd. (NASDAQ:SSYS) is not the most popular stock in this group, but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal, but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard BOFI might be a better candidate to consider a long position.

Disclosure: None