A whopping number of 13F filings filed with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has been processed by Insider Monkey so that individual investors can look at the overall hedge fund sentiment towards the stocks included in their watchlists. These freshly-submitted public filings disclose money managers’ equity positions as of the end of the three-month period that ended September 30, so let’s proceed with the discussion of the hedge fund sentiment on Mistras Group, Inc. (NYSE:MG).
Mistras Group, Inc. (NYSE:MG) has experienced an increase in hedge fund interest lately. Our calculations also showed that MG isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings and see the video below for Q2 rankings).
Video: Click the image to watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.
To most investors, hedge funds are seen as slow, old investment tools of the past. While there are over 8000 funds in operation today, Our researchers hone in on the leaders of this group, around 750 funds. It is estimated that this group of investors control the lion’s share of all hedge funds’ total asset base, and by following their finest picks, Insider Monkey has figured out a number of investment strategies that have historically outstripped the broader indices. Insider Monkey’s flagship short hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 short ETFs by around 20 percentage points per year since its inception in May 2014. Our portfolio of short stocks lost 27.8% since February 2017 (through November 21st) even though the market was up more than 39% during the same period. We just shared a list of 7 short targets in our latest quarterly update .
Chuck Royce of Royce & Associates
We leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example Europe is set to become the world’s largest cannabis market, so we check out this European marijuana stock pitch. One of the most bullish analysts in America just put his money where his mouth is. He says, “I’m investing more today than I did back in early 2009.” So we check out his pitch. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. We also rely on the best performing hedge funds‘ buy/sell signals. We’re going to analyze the recent hedge fund action surrounding Mistras Group, Inc. (NYSE:MG).
How have hedgies been trading Mistras Group, Inc. (NYSE:MG)?
At Q3’s end, a total of 14 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 40% from the previous quarter. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards MG over the last 17 quarters. So, let’s see which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Renaissance Technologies holds the biggest position in Mistras Group, Inc. (NYSE:MG). Renaissance Technologies has a $9 million position in the stock, comprising less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio. On Renaissance Technologies’s heels is Rutabaga Capital Management, managed by Peter Schliemann, which holds a $8.3 million position; 2.9% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other peers that hold long positions include David E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates and Richard S. Meisenberg’s ACK Asset Management. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Rutabaga Capital Management allocated the biggest weight to Mistras Group, Inc. (NYSE:MG), around 2.95% of its 13F portfolio. ACK Asset Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, setting aside 1.2 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to MG.
As one would reasonably expect, key hedge funds have jumped into Mistras Group, Inc. (NYSE:MG) headfirst. ACK Asset Management, managed by Richard S. Meisenberg, established the most outsized position in Mistras Group, Inc. (NYSE:MG). ACK Asset Management had $4.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Israel Englander’s Millennium Management also made a $3.2 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace, Thomas Bailard’s Bailard Inc, and Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management.
Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Mistras Group, Inc. (NYSE:MG) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Hometrust Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:HTBI), Vectrus Inc (NYSE:VEC), Mechel PAO (NYSE:MTL), and Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals, Ltd. (NASDAQ:KNSA). This group of stocks’ market values resemble MG’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| HTBI | 10 | 69092 | 1 |
| VEC | 15 | 49982 | 3 |
| MTL | 2 | 1373 | 0 |
| KNSA | 8 | 66257 | -1 |
| Average | 8.75 | 46676 | 0.75 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 8.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $47 million. That figure was $45 million in MG’s case. Vectrus Inc (NYSE:VEC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Mechel PAO (NYSE:MTL) is the least popular one with only 2 bullish hedge fund positions. Mistras Group, Inc. (NYSE:MG) 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. Our calculations showed that top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 37.4% in 2019 through the end of November and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 9.9 percentage points. Unfortunately MG wasn’t nearly as popular as these 20 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on MG were disappointed as the stock returned -19.3% during the fourth quarter (through the end of November) and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds as many of these stocks already outperformed the market so far this year.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
