Hedge Funds Are Buying New Media Investment Group Inc (NEWM)

Billionaire hedge fund managers such as Steve Cohen and Stan Druckenmiller can generate millions or even billions of dollars every year by pinning down high-potential small-cap stocks and pouring cash into these candidates. Small-cap stocks are overlooked by most investors, brokerage houses, and financial services hubs, while the unlimited research abilities of the big players within the hedge fund industry can easily identify the undervalued and high-potential stocks that reside the ignored corners of equity markets. There are numerous small-cap stocks that have turned out to be great winners, which is one of the main reasons the Insider Monkey team pays close attention to the hedge fund activity in relation to these stocks.

In this article, we’ll take a closer look at the latest hedge fund activity surrounding New Media Investment Group Inc (NYSE:NEWM). At the end of September, 17 funds from our database held shares of  New Media Investment Group. At the end of this article we will also compare NEWM to other stocks including Quality Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:QSII), United Financial Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:UBNK), and Penntex Midstream Partners LP (NASDAQ:PTXP) to get a better sense of its popularity.

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We follow over 700 hedge funds and other institutional investors and by analyzing their quarterly 13F filings, we identify stocks that they are collectively bullish on and develop investment strategies based on this data. One strategy that outperformed the market over the last year involves selecting the 100 best-performing funds and identifying the 30 mid-cap stocks that they are collectively most bullish on. Over the past year, this strategy generated returns of 18%, topping the 8% gain registered by S&P 500 ETFs. We launched this strategy 2.5 years ago and it returned more than 39% since then, vs. 22% gain registered by the S&P 500 ETFs.

Brian A Jackson/Shutterstock.com

Brian A Jackson/Shutterstock.com

Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a look at the latest action regarding New Media Investment Group Inc (NYSE:NEWM).

What have hedge funds been doing with New Media Investment Group Inc (NYSE:NEWM)?

Heading into the fourth quarter of 2016, a total of 17 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on New Media Investment Group, which represents an increase of 13% from the previous quarter. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish positions in NEWM over the last five quarters. So, let’s examine which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

NEWM Chart

When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Leon Cooperman’s Omega Advisors has the biggest position in New Media Investment Group Inc (NYSE:NEWM), worth close to $46.2 million, amounting to 1.4% of its total 13F portfolio. On Omega Advisors’s heels is AQR Capital Management, led by Cliff Asness, which holds a $6.4 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining peers that are bullish comprise Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates and Robert B. Gillam’s McKinley Capital Management. We should note that Sprott Asset Management is among our list of the 100 best performing hedge funds which is based on the performance of their 13F long positions in non-microcap stocks.

Consequently, some big names have jumped into New Media Investment Group Inc (NYSE:NEWM) headfirst. Eric Sprott’s Sprott Asset Management established the biggest position in New Media Investment Group Inc (NYSE:NEWM). Sprott Asset Management had $1.6 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital also made a $0.5 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new NEWM investors: John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors and Paul Tudor Jones’ Tudor Investment Corp.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to New Media Investment Group Inc (NYSE:NEWM). These stocks are Quality Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:QSII), United Financial Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:UBNK), Penntex Midstream Partners LP (NASDAQ:PTXP), and InvenSense Inc (NYSE:INVN). This group of stocks’ market values match NEWM’s market value.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
QSII 14 31504 1
UBNK 13 31073 2
PTXP 4 54104 0
INVN 15 23195 1

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 $35 million. That figure was $68 million in NEWM’s case. InvenSense Inc (NYSE:INVN) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Penntex Midstream Partners LP (NASDAQ:PTXP) is the least popular one with only four funds holding shares. Compared to these stocks New Media Investment Group Inc (NYSE:NEWM) is more popular among hedge funds. Considering that hedge funds are fond of this stock in relation to its market cap peers, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and potentially include it in your portfolio.

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