Here is What Hedge Funds Think About athenahealth, Inc (ATHN)

Due to the fact that athenahealth, Inc (NASDAQ:ATHN) has witnessed a declination in interest from hedge fund managers, it’s easy to see that there was a specific group of funds that decided to sell off their positions entirely by the end of the third quarter. Intriguingly, Jacob Gottlieb’s Visium Asset Management dropped the largest position of the “upper crust” of funds followed by Insider Monkey, valued at about $19.8 million in stock, and Richard Schimel’s Sterling Ridge Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $3.9 million worth of shares. These moves are important to note, as total hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as athenahealth, Inc (NASDAQ:ATHN) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd (NYSE:TRQ), Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc (NYSE:HII), The Ultimate Software Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTI), and Lennox International Inc. (NYSE:LII). This group of stocks’ market valuations are similar to ATHN’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 22 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $311 million. That figure was $424 million in ATHN’s case. Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc (NYSE:HII) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand The Ultimate Software Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTI) is the least popular one with only 16 bullish hedge fund positions. athenahealth, Inc (NASDAQ:ATHN) 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 HII might be a better candidate to consider a long position.