Hedge Funds Are Dumping Teleflex Incorporated (TFX)

The latest 13F reporting period has come and gone, and Insider Monkey is again at the forefront when it comes to making use of this gold mine of data. We at Insider Monkey have plowed through 867 13F filings that hedge funds and well-known value investors are required to file by the SEC. The 13F filings show the funds’ and investors’ portfolio positions as of September 30th. In this article we look at what those investors think of Teleflex Incorporated (NYSE:TFX).

Is Teleflex Incorporated (NYSE:TFX) a healthy stock for your portfolio? Hedge funds were getting less bullish. The number of long hedge fund positions decreased by 4 in recent months. Teleflex Incorporated (NYSE:TFX) was in 26 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. The all time high for this statistic is 40. Our calculations also showed that TFX isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings).

At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, lithium prices have more than doubled over the past year, so we go through lists like the 10 best EV stocks to pick the next Tesla that will deliver a 10x return. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. Keeping this in mind let’s take a gander at the recent hedge fund action regarding Teleflex Incorporated (NYSE:TFX).

Do Hedge Funds Think TFX Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?

At the end of the third quarter, a total of 26 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of -13% from one quarter earlier. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards TFX over the last 25 quarters. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes considerably (or already accumulated large positions).

When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Marshall Wace LLP, managed by Paul Marshall and Ian Wace, holds the largest position in Teleflex Incorporated (NYSE:TFX). Marshall Wace LLP has a $259.4 million position in the stock, comprising 1.1% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Robert Joseph Caruso of Select Equity Group, with a $64.4 million position; 0.2% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other peers with similar optimism comprise Brian Ashford-Russell and Tim Woolley’s Polar Capital, Kris Jenner, Gordon Bussard, Graham McPhail’s Rock Springs Capital Management and Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Codex Capital allocated the biggest weight to Teleflex Incorporated (NYSE:TFX), around 2.36% of its 13F portfolio. Osterweis Capital Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, designating 1.23 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to TFX.

Judging by the fact that Teleflex Incorporated (NYSE:TFX) has faced a decline in interest from hedge fund managers, we can see that there is a sect of fund managers that decided to sell off their full holdings by the end of the third quarter. Interestingly, Bhagwan Jay Rao’s Integral Health Asset Management said goodbye to the biggest position of the 750 funds watched by Insider Monkey, comprising close to $16.1 million in stock. McKinley Capital Management, also sold off its stock, about $6.8 million worth. These moves are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest fell by 4 funds by the end of the third quarter.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Teleflex Incorporated (NYSE:TFX). We will take a look at Domino’s Pizza, Inc. (NYSE:DPZ), J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:JBHT), Pembina Pipeline Corp (NYSE:PBA), Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC), Pool Corporation (NASDAQ:POOL), Shinhan Financial Group Co., Ltd. (NYSE:SHG), and Rollins, Inc. (NYSE:ROL). This group of stocks’ market values are similar to TFX’s market value.

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As you can see these stocks had an average of 25.1 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $819 million. That figure was $579 million in TFX’s case. Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Shinhan Financial Group Co., Ltd. (NYSE:SHG) is the least popular one with only 6 bullish hedge fund positions. Teleflex Incorporated (NYSE:TFX) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for TFX is 49.1. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. Our calculations showed that top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 95.8% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 40 percentage points. These stocks gained 31.1% in 2021 through December 9th and beat the market again by 5.1 percentage points. Unfortunately TFX wasn’t nearly as popular as these 5 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on TFX were disappointed as the stock returned -14.8% since the end of September (through 12/9) and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds as many of these stocks already outperformed the market since 2019.

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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.