Here is What Hedge Funds Think About Chart Industries, Inc. (GTLS)

Reputable billionaire investors such as Nelson Peltz and David Tepper generate exorbitant profits for their wealthy accredited investors (a minimum of $1 million in investable assets would be required to invest in a hedge fund and most successful hedge funds won’t accept your savings unless you commit at least $5 million) by pinpointing winning small-cap stocks. There is little or no publicly-available information at all on some of these small companies, which makes it hard for an individual investor to pin down a winner within the small-cap space. However, hedge funds and other big asset managers can do the due diligence and analysis for you instead, thanks to their highly-skilled research teams and vast resources to conduct an appropriate evaluation process. Looking for potential winners within the small-cap galaxy of stocks? We believe following the smart money is a good starting point.

Is Chart Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:GTLS) a buy here? The best stock pickers are undeniably taking an optimistic view. The number of long hedge fund positions moved up by 4 recently. There were 19 hedge funds in our database with GTLS positions at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of this article we will also compare GTLS to other stocks including Inter Parfums, Inc. (NASDAQ:IPAR), Green Plains Renewable Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:GPRE), and Xencor Inc (NASDAQ:XNCR) to get a better sense of its popularity.

We follow over 700 hedge funds and other institutional investors and by analyzing their quarterly 13F filings, we identify stocks that they are collectively bullish on and develop investment strategies based on this data. One strategy that outperformed the market over the last year, involves selecting the 100 best-performing funds and identifying the 30 mid-cap stocks that they are collectively most bullish on. Over the past year, this strategy generated returns of 18%, topping the 8% gain registered by S&P 500 ETFs.

Keeping this in mind, let’s check out the fresh action regarding Chart Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:GTLS).

How are hedge funds trading Chart Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:GTLS)?

At the end of the third quarter, a total of 23 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, an increase of 21% from the previous quarter. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in GTLS over the last 5 quarters. So, let’s check out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Richard S. Pzena’s Pzena Investment Management has the number one position in Chart Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:GTLS), worth close to $50.7 million, comprising 0.3% of its total 13F portfolio. On Pzena Investment Management’s heels is Gotham Asset Management, led by Joel Greenblatt, holding a $15.8 million position; 0.2% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other members of the smart money that are bullish consist of Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital, J. Carlo Cannell’s Cannell Capital and John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors. We should note that none of these hedge funds are among our list of the 100 best performing hedge funds which is based on the performance of their 13F long positions in non-microcap stocks.

As industrywide interest jumped, key money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Algert Coldiron Investors, led by Peter Algert and Kevin Coldiron, established the most valuable position in Chart Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:GTLS). According to regulatory filings, the fund had $1.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies also made a $1.2 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, George Hall’s Clinton Group, and Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Chart Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:GTLS). These stocks are Inter Parfums, Inc. (NASDAQ:IPAR), Green Plains Renewable Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:GPRE), Xencor Inc (NASDAQ:XNCR), and Greenbrier Companies Inc (NYSE:GBX). This group of stocks’ market valuations are closest to GTLS’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 17 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $135 million. That figure was $106 million in GTLS’s case. Green Plains Renewable Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:GPRE) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Inter Parfums, Inc. (NASDAQ:IPAR) is the least popular one with only 11 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Chart Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:GTLS) is more popular among hedge funds. Considering that hedge funds are fond of this stock in relation to its market cap peers, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and potentially include it in your portfolio.

Disclosure: none.