Helen of Troy Limited (HELE): 73% Surge in Smart Money Ownership; What’s Going On Here?

Consequently, key money managers were breaking ground themselves. Paul Marshall and Ian Wace of Marshall Wace LLP initiated the most outsized position in Helen of Troy Limited (NASDAQ:HELE). Marshall Wace LLP had $6.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. David E. Shaw’s D E Shaw also initiated a $4 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors, and Michael Platt and William Reeves’ BlueCrest Capital Mgmt..

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Helen of Troy Limited (NASDAQ:HELE). These stocks are Carrizo Oil & Gas, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRZO), Care Capital Properties Inc (NYSE:CCP), Virgin America Inc (NASDAQ:VA), and Generac Holdings Inc. (NYSE:GNRC). This group of stocks’ market caps resemble HELE’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 18 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $313 million. That figure was $119 million in HELE’s case. Virgin America Inc (NASDAQ:VA) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Care Capital Properties Inc (NYSE:CCP) is the least popular one with only 13 bullish hedge fund positions. Helen of Troy Limited (NASDAQ:HELE) 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 VA might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: None