Hedge Funds Have Never Been This Bullish On Tufin Software Technologies Ltd. (TUFN)

Hedge Funds and other institutional investors have just completed filing their 13Fs with the Securities and Exchange Commission, revealing their equity portfolios as of the end of June. At Insider Monkey, we follow nearly 750 active hedge funds and notable investors and by analyzing their 13F filings, we can determine the stocks that they are collectively bullish on. One of their picks is Tufin Software Technologies Ltd. (NYSE:TUFN), so let’s take a closer look at the sentiment that surrounds it in the current quarter.

Tufin Software Technologies Ltd. (NYSE:TUFN) shareholders have witnessed an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds recently. TUFN was in 7 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2019. There were 6 hedge funds in our database with TUFN holdings at the end of the previous quarter. Our calculations also showed that TUFN isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings and see the video below for Q2 rankings).
5 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds
Video: Click the image to watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.

To the average investor there are numerous methods shareholders use to value stocks. A duo of the less known methods are hedge fund and insider trading indicators. Our experts have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite hedge fund managers can trounce the S&P 500 by a healthy amount (see the details here).

Sander Gerber Hudson Bay Capital Management

Sander Gerber of Hudson Bay Capital Management

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. Let’s take a look at the latest hedge fund action regarding Tufin Software Technologies Ltd. (NYSE:TUFN).

What does smart money think about Tufin Software Technologies Ltd. (NYSE:TUFN)?

At the end of the third quarter, a total of 7 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 17% from the second quarter of 2019. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards TUFN over the last 17 quarters. So, let’s find out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

More specifically, Driehaus Capital was the largest shareholder of Tufin Software Technologies Ltd. (NYSE:TUFN), with a stake worth $5.3 million reported as of the end of September. Trailing Driehaus Capital was Citadel Investment Group, which amassed a stake valued at $0.7 million. Tudor Investment Corp, Springbok Capital, and Hudson Bay Capital Management were also very fond of the stock, becoming one of the largest hedge fund holders of the company. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Driehaus Capital allocated the biggest weight to Tufin Software Technologies Ltd. (NYSE:TUFN), around 0.17% of its 13F portfolio. Springbok Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, dishing out 0.02 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to TUFN.

As one would reasonably expect, key hedge funds have jumped into Tufin Software Technologies Ltd. (NYSE:TUFN) headfirst. Hudson Bay Capital Management, managed by Sander Gerber, assembled the most outsized position in Tufin Software Technologies Ltd. (NYSE:TUFN). Hudson Bay Capital Management had $0.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Matthew Halbower’s Pentwater Capital Management also initiated a $0.3 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Tufin Software Technologies Ltd. (NYSE:TUFN) but similarly valued. These stocks are Autolus Therapeutics plc (NASDAQ:AUTL), Denbury Resources Inc. (NYSE:DNR), Quad/Graphics, Inc. (NYSE:QUAD), and New Senior Investment Group Inc (NYSE:SNR). All of these stocks’ market caps are closest to TUFN’s market cap.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
AUTL 11 63408 -2
DNR 11 19387 1
QUAD 9 15228 -7
SNR 10 77836 0
Average 10.25 43965 -2

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 10.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $44 million. That figure was $8 million in TUFN’s case. Autolus Therapeutics plc (NASDAQ:AUTL) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Quad/Graphics, Inc. (NYSE:QUAD) is the least popular one with only 9 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Tufin Software Technologies Ltd. (NYSE:TUFN) is even less popular than QUAD. Hedge funds clearly dropped the ball on TUFN as the stock delivered strong returns, though hedge funds’ consensus picks still generated respectable returns. 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. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on TUFN as the stock returned 16.7% during the fourth quarter (through the end of November) and outperformed the market by an even larger margin.

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