Hedge Funds Are Buying Ethan Allen Interiors Inc. (ETH)

The elite funds run by legendary investors such as Dan Loeb and David Tepper make hundreds of millions of dollars for themselves and their investors by spending enormous resources doing research on small cap stocks that big investment banks don’t follow. Because of their pay structures, they have strong incentive to do the research necessary to beat the market. That’s why we pay close attention to what they think in small cap stocks. In this article, we take a closer look at Ethan Allen Interiors Inc. (NYSE:ETH) from the perspective of those elite funds.

Is Ethan Allen Interiors Inc. (NYSE:ETH) the right investment to pursue these days? Prominent investors are getting more optimistic. The number of long hedge fund positions improved by 4 in recent months. The level and the change in hedge fund popularity aren’t the only variables you need to analyze to decipher hedge funds’ perspectives. A stock may witness a boost in popularity but it may still be less popular than similarly priced stocks. That’s why at the end of this article we will examine companies such as Radware Ltd. (NASDAQ:RDWR), Inteliquent (NASDAQ:IQNT), and MaxLinear, Inc. (NYSE:MXL) to gather more data points.

Keeping this in mind, let’s go over the new action regarding Ethan Allen Interiors Inc. (NYSE:ETH).

What does the smart money think about Ethan Allen Interiors Inc. (NYSE:ETH)?

Heading into Q4, a total of 17 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 31% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings considerably (or already accumulated large positions).

According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the largest position in Ethan Allen Interiors Inc. (NYSE:ETH). Royce & Associates has a $76.2 million position in the stock, comprising 0.4% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Sandell Asset Management, led by Tom Sandell, holding a $36.2 million position; 5.6% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining professional money managers with similar optimism consist of Crispin Odey’s Odey Asset Management Group, Lee Munder’s Lee Munder Capital Group and Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors.