Hedge Funds Are Crazy About Qumu Corp (QUMU)

Legendary investors such as Leon Cooperman and Seth Klarman earn enormous amounts of money for themselves and their investors by doing in-depth research on small-cap stocks that big brokerage houses don’t publish. Small cap stocks -especially when they are screened well- can generate substantial outperformance versus a boring index fund. That’s why we analyze the activity of those elite funds in these small-cap stocks. In the following paragraphs, we analyze Qumu Corp (NASDAQ:QUMU) from the perspective of those elite funds.

Qumu Corp was in 4 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. QUMU investors should be aware of an increase in hedge fund interest lately. There were 3 hedge funds in our database with QUMU holdings at the end of the previous quarter. 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 General Employment Enterprises, Inc. (NYSEMKT:JOB), Roka Bioscience Inc (NASDAQ:ROKA), and CASI Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:CASI) to gather more data points.

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Today there are a multitude of signals investors use to size up stocks. Two of the less known signals are hedge fund and insider trading moves. Our experts have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best hedge fund managers can outpace the S&P 500 by a very impressive amount (see the details here).

With all of this in mind, let’s analyze the fresh action regarding Qumu Corp (NASDAQ:QUMU).

How have hedgies been trading Qumu Corp (NASDAQ:QUMU)?

Heading into Q4, a total of 4 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 33% from the second quarter. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings considerably (or already accumulated large positions).

Among the funds we track, Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies holds the largest stake, worth $2.3 million as of September 30. It is followed by Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates with a $0.6 million position.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Qumu Corp (NASDAQ:QUMU) but similarly valued. We will take a look at General Employment Enterprises, Inc. (NYSEMKT:JOB), Roka Bioscience Inc (NASDAQ:ROKA), CASI Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:CASI), and Arc Group World Wide Inc (NASDAQ:ARCW). All of these stocks’ market caps match QUMU’s market cap.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
JOB 4 1096 3
ROKA 9 12306 -1
CASI 4 287 2
ARCW 4 2014 -2

As you can see these stocks had an average of 5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $4 million. That figure was $10 million in QUMU’s case. Roka Bioscience Inc (NASDAQ:ROKA) is the most popular stock in this table, while General Employment Enterprises, Inc. (NYSEMKT:JOB) is the least popular one with only 4 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Qumu Corp (NASDAQ:QUMU) is not very popular among investors we track and considering that hedge funds aren’t fond of this stock in relation to other companies analyzed in this article, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and understand why the smart money isn’t behind this stock.