Hedge Funds Aren’t Crazy About Vector Group Ltd (VGR) Anymore

Judging by the fact that Vector Group Ltd (NYSE:VGR) has witnessed a declination in interest from the smart money, it’s easy to see that there was a specific group of money managers that decided to sell off their entire stakes last quarter. Intriguingly, Matthew Knauer and Mina Faltas’s Nokota Management dumped the biggest position of all the hedgies monitored by Insider Monkey, valued at about $19.6 million in stock, and Nick Niell’s Arrowgrass Capital Partners was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $7.2 million worth of VGR shares. These bearish behaviors are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 2 funds last quarter.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Vector Group Ltd (NYSE:VGR). These stocks are DCP Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:DPM), Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Co (NASDAQ:HMHC), Bruker Corporation (NASDAQ:BRKR), and Care Capital Properties Inc (NYSE:CCP). This group of stocks’ market values resemble VGR’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 20 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $323 million. That figure was $234 million in VGR’s case. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Co (NASDAQ:HMHC) is the most popular stock in this table, whereas DCP Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:DPM) is the least popular one with only 10 bullish hedge fund positions. Vector Group Ltd (NYSE:VGR) is not the least popular stock in this group, but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard HMHC might be a better candidate to consider a long position.