A Few Investors Are High On Container Store Group Inc (TCS)

At Insider Monkey, we pore over the filings of more than 700 top investment firms every quarter, a process we have now completed for the latest reporting period. The data we’ve gathered as a result gives us access to a wealth of collective knowledge based on these firms’ portfolio holdings as of September 30. In this article, we will use that wealth of knowledge to determine whether or not Container Store Group Inc (NYSE:TCS) makes for a good investment right now.

Container Store Group Inc (NYSE:TCS) investors should pay attention to hedge fund sentiment, which is staying level in the stock at 8 investors from our database. At the end of this article we will also compare TCS to other stocks, including Usa Compression Partners LP (NYSE:USAC), Global Indemnity plc (NASDAQ:GBLI), and Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc (NYSE:UBA) to get a better sense of its popularity.

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To the average investor, there are a multitude of gauges shareholders employ to assess their stock investments. A duo of the best gauges are hedge fund and insider trading moves. Our researchers have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top fund managers can outpace their index-focused peers by a healthy margin (see the details here).

With all of this in mind, we’re going to analyze the latest action encompassing Container Store Group Inc (NYSE:TCS).

How have hedgies been trading Container Store Group Inc (NYSE:TCS)?

Heading into Q4, a total of 8 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, which represents no change from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes considerably (or already accumulated large positions).

According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the biggest position in Container Store Group Inc (NYSE:TCS). The mutual fund currently has a $30.6 million position in the stock, which accounts for 0.2% of its 13F portfolio. The second-most bullish fund manager is Sanford J. Colen, the boss of Apex Capital, whose fund holds a $30.1 million position and has 2.9% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other members of the smart money league that are bullish encompass Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management, Jim Tarantino and Chris Galvin’s Westerly Capital Management, and Daniel S. Och’s OZ Management.

Because Container Store Group Inc (NYSE:TCS) has faced a decline in interest from the smart money, logic holds that there is a sect of hedge funds that slashed their full holdings last quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management sold off the biggest stake of all the hedgies tracked by Insider Monkey, valued at about $1 million in stock, and Israel Englander of Millennium Management was right behind this move, as the fund manager sold off about $0.5 million worth of shares. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Container Store Group Inc (NYSE:TCS). We will take a look at Usa Compression Partners LP (NYSE:USAC), Global Indemnity plc (NASDAQ:GBLI), Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc (NYSE:UBA), and Solar Capital Ltd. (NASDAQ:SLRC). This group of stocks’ market values resemble TCS’s market value.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
USAC 4 5641 0
GBLI 5 24023 1
UBA 5 8256 -3
SLRC 14 41220 -3

As you can see these stocks had an average of 7 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $20 million. That figure was $66 million in Container Store’s case. Solar Capital Ltd. (NASDAQ:SLRC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Usa Compression Partners LP (NYSE:USAC) is the least popular one with only 4 bullish hedge fund positions. Container Store Group Inc (NYSE:TCS) is not the most popular stock in this group, but hedge fund interest is still above average, and the amount of money invested in the stock is higher than any of the other stocks. Thus, it might be worth considering looking into this stock further to see why some investors like it so much.