Hedge Funds Aren’t Crazy About American Capital Ltd. (ACAS) Anymore

Due to the fact that American Capital Ltd. (NASDAQ:ACAS) has witnessed a decline in interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s easy to see that there was a specific group of hedge funds that slashed their entire stakes by the end of the third quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Brian Taylor’s Pine River Capital Management dropped the largest investment of the “upper crust” of funds monitored by Insider Monkey, totaling close to $97.4 million in stock, and Jeremy Carton and Gilbert Li’s Alta Fundamental Advisers was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $5.8 million worth of shares. These moves are interesting, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 6 funds by the end of the third quarter.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as American Capital Ltd. (NASDAQ:ACAS) but similarly valued. These stocks are Regal Entertainment Group (NYSE:RGC), Sprouts Farmers Market Inc (NASDAQ:SFM), Rice Energy Inc (NYSE:RICE), and NCR Corporation (NYSE:NCR). This group of stocks’ market caps resemble ACAS’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 27.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $440 million. That figure was $600 million in ACAS’ case. Rice Energy Inc (NYSE:RICE) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Regal Entertainment Group (NYSE:RGC) is the least popular one with only 19 bullish hedge fund positions. American Capital Ltd. (NASDAQ:ACAS) 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 RICE might be a better candidate to consider a long position.

Disclosure: None