Fly Leasing Ltd (FLY) Not Taking Off With Investors

We can judge whether Fly Leasing Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:FLY) is a good investment right now by following the lead of some of the best investors in the world and piggybacking their ideas. There’s no better way to get these firms’ immense resources and analytical capabilities working for us than to follow their lead into their best ideas. While not all of these picks will be winners, research shows that these picks historically outperformed the market when we factor in known risk factors.

Fly Leasing Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:FLY) was in ten hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2015. Fly Leasing Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:FLY) investors should pay attention to a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money recently. There were 11 hedge funds in our database with Fly Leasing Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:FLY) positions at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of this article, we will also compare Fly Leasing Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:FLY) to other stocks including Piper Jaffray Companies (NYSE:PJC), Perficient, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRFT), and Newport Corporation (NASDAQ:NEWP) to get a better sense of its popularity.

To the average investor there are dozens of indicators market participants put to use to size up their stock investments. A couple of the less utilized indicators are hedge fund and insider trading moves. we have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top hedge fund managers can beat their index-focused peers by a very impressive margin (see the details here).

With all of this in mind, we’re going to view the fresh action regarding Fly Leasing Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:FLY).

Hedge fund activity in Fly Leasing Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:FLY)

At the end of Q3, a total of ten of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a decline of 9% from the second quarter. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes substantially (or already accumulated large positions).

According to Insider Monkey’s hedge fund database, Seawolf Capital, managed by Porter Collins, Daniel Moses, and Vincent Daniel, holds the largest position in Fly Leasing Ltd(ADR) (NYSE:FLY). Seawolf Capital has a $24.6 million position in the stock, comprising 6.2% of its 13F portfolio. On Seawolf Capital’s heels is Israel Englander of Millennium Management, with an $8 million position; the fund has less than 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other peers that hold long positions comprise Joseph A. Jolson’s Harvest Capital Strategies, D E Shaw, and John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors.

Because Fly Leasing Ltd(ADR) (NYSE:FLY) has witnessed bearish sentiment from the smart money, we can see that there is a sect of hedgies that elected to cut their positions entirely in the third quarter. At the top of the heap, Seawolf Capital dropped the biggest position of the “upper crust” of funds monitored by Insider Monkey, totaling close to $10.2 million in stock, while Ken Brodkowitz and Mike Vermut of Newland Capital were right behind this move, as the fund managers sold off about $1.6 million worth of shares. These bearish behaviors are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by one fund in the third quarter.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Fly Leasing Ltd(ADR) (NYSE:FLY) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Piper Jaffray Companies (NYSE:PJC), Perficient, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRFT), Newport Corporation (NASDAQ:NEWP), and Marten Transport, Ltd (NASDAQ:MRTN). This group of stocks’ market valuations match Fly Leasing Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:FLY)’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 16 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $43 million.That figure was $50 millions in Fly Leasing Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:FLY)’s case. Newport Corporation (NASDAQ:NEWP) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Perficient, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRFT) is the least popular one with only nine bullish hedge fund positions. Fly Leasing Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:FLY) 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 Newport Corporation (NASDAQ:NEWP) might be a better candidate to consider a long position in.