Do Hedge Funds Love Piper Jaffray Companies (PJC)?

As industrywide interest jumped, key hedge funds have been driving this bullishness. Fisher Asset Management, managed by Ken Fisher, initiated the most valuable position in Piper Jaffray Companies (NYSE:PJC). Fisher Asset Management had $3.6 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Doug Gordon, Jon Hilsabeck and Don Jabro’s Shellback Capital also initiated a $2.6 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new PJC positions are Lawrence Sapanski’s Scoria Capital, Mike Vranos’s Ellington, and Millennium Management Subsidiary’s Blue Arrow Capital Management.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Piper Jaffray Companies (NYSE:PJC). These stocks are Perficient, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRFT), Newport Corporation (NASDAQ:NEWP), Marten Transport, Ltd (NASDAQ:MRTN), and Del Taco Restaurants Inc (NASDAQ:TACO). This group of stocks’ market values resemble PJC’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 17 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $71 million. That figure was $49 million in PJC’s case. Del Taco Restaurants Inc (NASDAQ:TACO) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Perficient, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRFT) is the least popular one with only 9 bullish hedge fund positions. Piper Jaffray Companies (NYSE:PJC) 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 TACO might be a better candidate to consider a long position.