Here is What Hedge Funds Think About Integer Holdings Corporation (ITGR)

We know that hedge funds generate strong, risk-adjusted returns over the long run, therefore imitating the picks that they are collectively bullish on can be a profitable strategy for retail investors. With billions of dollars in assets, smart money investors have to conduct complex analyses, spend many resources and use tools that are not always available for the general crowd. This doesn’t mean that they don’t have occasional colossal losses; they do (like Melvin Capital’s recent GameStop losses). However, it is still a good idea to keep an eye on hedge fund activity. With this in mind, as the current round of 13F filings has just ended, let’s examine the smart money sentiment towards Integer Holdings Corporation (NYSE:ITGR).

Integer Holdings Corporation (NYSE:ITGR) has seen an increase in hedge fund interest recently. Integer Holdings Corporation (NYSE:ITGR) was in 23 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of June. The all time high for this statistic is 29. There were 16 hedge funds in our database with ITGR holdings at the end of March. Our calculations also showed that ITGR isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q2 rankings).

To most stock holders, hedge funds are perceived as underperforming, old investment tools of the past. While there are more than 8000 funds trading today, Our researchers choose to focus on the upper echelon of this group, around 850 funds. These investment experts orchestrate bulk of the smart money’s total capital, and by following their best stock picks, Insider Monkey has determined numerous investment strategies that have historically outstripped Mr. Market. 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 March 2017. Also, our monthly newsletter’s portfolio of long stock picks returned 185.4% since March 2017 (through August 2021) and beat the S&P 500 Index by more than 79 percentage points. You can download a sample issue of this newsletter on our website.

At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, lithium mining is one of the fastest growing industries right now, so we are checking out stock pitches like this emerging lithium stock. We go through lists like the 10 best EV stocks to pick the next Tesla that will deliver a 10x return. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. You can subscribe to our free daily newsletter on our homepage. With all of this in mind we’re going to take a peek at the latest hedge fund action encompassing Integer Holdings Corporation (NYSE:ITGR).

Do Hedge Funds Think ITGR Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?

At Q2’s end, a total of 23 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 44% from the previous quarter. By comparison, 17 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in ITGR a year ago. 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, Hawk Ridge Management, managed by David Brown, holds the biggest position in Integer Holdings Corporation (NYSE:ITGR). Hawk Ridge Management has a $57.4 million position in the stock, comprising 4.1% of its 13F portfolio. The second most bullish fund manager is Fisher Asset Management, managed by Ken Fisher, which holds a $53 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining members of the smart money that are bullish contain Ric Dillon’s Diamond Hill Capital, Justin John Ferayorni’s Tamarack Capital Management and Ed Bosek’s BeaconLight Capital. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Hawk Ridge Management allocated the biggest weight to Integer Holdings Corporation (NYSE:ITGR), around 4.12% of its 13F portfolio. Tamarack Capital Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 3.6 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to ITGR.

Now, key hedge funds were leading the bulls’ herd. Sio Capital, managed by Michael Castor, initiated the most outsized position in Integer Holdings Corporation (NYSE:ITGR). Sio Capital had $6.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management also made a $3.3 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new ITGR positions are Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates, Renaissance Technologies, and Greg Eisner’s Engineers Gate Manager.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Integer Holdings Corporation (NYSE:ITGR). We will take a look at GrafTech International Ltd. (NYSE:EAF), 2U Inc (NASDAQ:TWOU), Phreesia, Inc. (NYSE:PHR), Pebblebrook Hotel Trust (NYSE:PEB), Livent Corporation (NYSE:LTHM), American Equity Investment Life Holding Company (NYSE:AEL), and Burning Rock Biotech Limited (NASDAQ:BNR). This group of stocks’ market caps match ITGR’s market cap.

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As you can see these stocks had an average of 22.9 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $277 million. That figure was $200 million in ITGR’s case. GrafTech International Ltd. (NYSE:EAF) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Burning Rock Biotech Limited (NASDAQ:BNR) is the least popular one with only 9 bullish hedge fund positions. Integer Holdings Corporation (NYSE:ITGR) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for ITGR is 59.7. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. 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 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 95.8% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 40 percentage points. These stocks gained 24% in 2021 through October 22nd and beat the market again by 1.6 percentage points. Unfortunately ITGR wasn’t nearly as popular as these 5 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on ITGR were disappointed as the stock returned -2.7% since the end of June (through 10/22) and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds as many of these stocks already outperformed the market since 2019.

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