Hedge Funds Are Buying Columbus McKinnon Corp. (CMCO)

As aggregate interest increased, some big names were leading the bulls’ herd. Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, created the largest position in Columbus McKinnon Corp. (NASDAQ:CMCO). Millennium Management had $2.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Ken Gray and Steve Walsh’s Bryn Mawr Capital also initiated an $0.6 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new CMCO investors: Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management, and Chao Ku’s Nine Chapters Capital Management.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Columbus McKinnon Corp. (NASDAQ:CMCO) but similarly valued. These stocks are TubeMogul Inc (NASDAQ:TUBE), Ascent Capital Group Inc (NASDAQ:ASCMA), Park-Ohio Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:PKOH), and Citi Trends, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTRN). This group of stocks’ market caps match CMCO’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 12 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $60 million, versus $62 million in CMCO’s case. Citi Trends, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTRN) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Park-Ohio Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:PKOH) is the least popular one with only 6 bullish hedge fund positions. Columbus McKinnon Corp. (NASDAQ:CMCO) 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 CTRN might be a better candidate to consider a long position.