Hedge Funds Are Torn On Air Lease Corp (AL)

Since Air Lease Corp (NYSE:AL) has experienced a decline in interest from hedge fund managers, we can see that there were a few funds that elected to cut their positions entirely heading into fourth quarter. Interestingly, Ernest Chow and Jonathan Howe’s Sensato Capital Management cut the biggest stake of the “upper crust” of funds watched by Insider Monkey, valued at about $8.6 million in stock, and George Hall’s Clinton Group was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $5.2 million worth of shares. These moves are interesting, as total hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Air Lease Corp (NYSE:AL). These stocks are Monolithic Power Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:MPWR), Graham Holdings Co (NYSE:GHC), Ellie Mae Inc (NYSE:ELLI), and Tenet Healthcare Corp (NYSE:THC). This group of stocks’ market valuations are closest to AL’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 24 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $451 million. That figure was $286 million in AL’s case. Tenet Healthcare Corp (NYSE:THC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Graham Holdings Co (NYSE:GHC) is the least popular one with only 17 bullish hedge fund positions. Air Lease Corp (NYSE:AL) 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 THC might be a better candidate to consider a long position in.

Disclosure: None