Commercial Vehicle Group, Inc. (CVGI): Hedge Fund Sentiment Unchanged

Hedge Funds and other institutional investors have just completed filing their 13Fs with the Securities and Exchange Commission, revealing their equity portfolios as of the end of September. At Insider Monkey, we follow over 700 of the best-performing investors and by analyzing their 13F filings, we can determine the stocks that they are collectively bullish on. One of their picks is Commercial Vehicle Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CVGI), so let’s take a closer look at the sentiment that surrounds it in the current quarter.

Commercial Vehicle Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CVGI) shares haven’t seen a lot of action during the third quarter. Overall, hedge fund sentiment was unchanged. The stock was in 10 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. At the end of this article we will also compare CVGI to other stocks including AXT Inc (NASDAQ:AXTI), Galmed Pharmaceuticals Ltd (NASDAQ:GLMD), and Invesco Pennsylvania Value Municipal Income Trust (NYSE:VPV) to get a better sense of its popularity.

In today’s marketplace there are a large number of gauges shareholders employ to assess stocks. Two of the best gauges are hedge fund and insider trading interest. Our researchers have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite investment managers can outclass the market by a very impressive amount (see the details here).

Chuck Royce

Let’s analyze the fresh hedge fund action regarding Commercial Vehicle Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CVGI).

How are hedge funds trading Commercial Vehicle Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CVGI)?

At the end of the third quarter, a total of 10 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, no change from one quarter earlier. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards CVGI over the last 13 quarters. So, let’s examine which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

CVGI_dec2018

The largest stake in Commercial Vehicle Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CVGI) was held by Royce & Associates, which reported holding $18.6 million worth of stock at the end of September. It was followed by Renaissance Technologies with a $17.8 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included DC Capital Partners, AQR Capital Management, and Millennium Management.

We view hedge fund activity in the stock unfavorable, but in this case there was only a single hedge fund selling its entire position: Balyasny Asset Management. One hedge fund selling its entire position doesn’t always imply a bearish intent. Theoretically a hedge fund may decide to sell a promising position in order to invest the proceeds in a more promising idea. However, we don’t think this is the case in this case because only one of the 800+ hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey identified as a viable investment and initiated a position in the stock (that fund was PEAK6 Capital Management).

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Commercial Vehicle Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CVGI). We will take a look at AXT Inc (NASDAQ:AXTI), Galmed Pharmaceuticals Ltd (NASDAQ:GLMD), Invesco Pennsylvania Value Municipal Income Trust (NYSE:VPV), and VectoIQ Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ:VTIQ). This group of stocks’ market caps are similar to CVGI’s market cap.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
AXTI 9 20471 0
GLMD 10 69019 -2
VPV 1 453 -1
VTIQ 11 30595 0
Average 7.75 30135 -0.75

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 7.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $30 million. That figure was $54 million in CVGI’s case. VectoIQ Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ:VTIQ) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Invesco Pennsylvania Value Municipal Income Trust (NYSE:VPV) is the least popular one with only 1 bullish hedge fund positions. Commercial Vehicle Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CVGI) 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 VTIQ might be a better candidate to consider a long position.

Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.