Do Hedge Funds Love AptarGroup, Inc. (ATR)?

Now that we’ve mentioned the most bullish investors, let’s also take a look at some funds that sold off their entire stakes in the stock during the third quarter. At the top of the heap, Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital sold off the biggest stake of the 700 funds watched by Insider Monkey, worth an estimated $7.3 million in stock. Andrew Sandler’s fund, Sandler Capital Management, also dropped its stock, about $5.6 million worth AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR) shares.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR). We will take a look at Ares Capital Corporation (NASDAQ:ARCC), Communications Sales & Leasing Inc (NASDAQ:CSAL), Bemis Company, Inc. (NYSE:BMS), and Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:BIO). This group of stocks’ market valuations are closest to ATR’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 22 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $343 million. That figure was $81 million in ATR’s case. Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:BIO) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Bemis Company, Inc. (NYSE:BMS) is the least popular one with only 16 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR) is even less popular than BMS. Considering that hedge funds aren’t fond of this stock in relation to other companies analyzed in this article, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and understand why the smart money isn’t behind this stock. This isn’t necessarily bad news. Although it is possible that hedge funds may think the stock is overpriced and view the stock as a short candidate, they may not be very familiar with the bullish thesis. In either case more research is warranted.

Disclosure: none.