The 700+ hedge funds and money managers tracked by Insider Monkey have already compiled and submitted their 13F filings for the fourth quarter, which unveil their equity positions as of December 31. We went through these filings, fixed typos and other more significant errors and identified the changes in hedge fund positions. Our extensive review of these public filings is finally over, so this article is set to reveal the smart money sentiment towards NetScout Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTCT).
Is NetScout Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTCT) undervalued? Hedge funds are buying. The number of long hedge fund bets rose by 2 lately. Our calculations also showed that ntct isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.
To the average investor there are dozens of methods stock market investors use to assess their stock investments. A pair of the most useful methods are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. We have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite money managers can outpace the S&P 500 by a very impressive margin (see the details here).
We’re going to take a look at the latest hedge fund action regarding NetScout Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTCT).
Hedge fund activity in NetScout Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTCT)
At Q4’s end, a total of 14 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 17% from the previous quarter. By comparison, 17 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in NTCT a year ago. So, let’s examine which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
The largest stake in NetScout Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTCT) was held by Fisher Asset Management, which reported holding $65.5 million worth of stock at the end of September. It was followed by D E Shaw with a $14.7 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included Millennium Management, Royce & Associates, and PDT Partners.
Now, some big names were breaking ground themselves. PDT Partners, managed by Peter Muller, created the largest position in NetScout Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTCT). PDT Partners had $2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital also made a $1 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Minhua Zhang’s Weld Capital Management, Andrew Feldstein and Stephen Siderow’s Blue Mountain Capital, and Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management.
Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to NetScout Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTCT). We will take a look at Pattern Energy Group Inc (NASDAQ:PEGI), Groupon Inc (NASDAQ:GRPN), AAON, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAON), and Rogers Corporation (NYSE:ROG). This group of stocks’ market caps are closest to NTCT’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| PEGI | 11 | 18611 | 2 |
| GRPN | 24 | 351874 | -8 |
| AAON | 6 | 4259 | 1 |
| ROG | 7 | 20974 | 0 |
| Average | 12 | 98930 | -1.25 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 12 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $99 million. That figure was $93 million in NTCT’s case. Groupon Inc (NASDAQ:GRPN) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand AAON, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAON) is the least popular one with only 6 bullish hedge fund positions. NetScout Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTCT) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our calculations showed that top 15 most popular stocks) among hedge funds returned 24.2% through April 22nd and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by more than 7 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on NTCT, though not to the same extent, as the stock returned 24.2% and outperformed the market as well.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
