How Encore Capital Group, Inc. (ECPG) Stacks Up Against Its Peers

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Since Encore Capital Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:ECPG) has witnessed falling interest from hedge fund managers, it’s safe to say that there lies a certain “tier” of fund managers that slashed their full holdings last quarter. At the top of the heap, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management got rid of the largest stake of all the investors tracked by Insider Monkey, comprising close to $1.7 million in stock, and Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $0.2 million worth of shares.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Encore Capital Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:ECPG) but similarly valued. These stocks are AeroVironment, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVAV), Epizyme Inc (NASDAQ:EPZM), PDF Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:PDFS), and SP Plus Corp (NASDAQ:SP). This group of stocks’ market values resemble ECPG’s market value.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
AVAV 5 21627 -1
EPZM 14 64785 2
PDFS 12 89329 -5
SP 10 34078 2

As you can see these stocks had an average of 10 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $52 million. That figure was $69 million in ECPG’s case. Epizyme Inc (NASDAQ:EPZM) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand AeroVironment, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVAV) is the least popular one with only 5 bullish hedge fund positions. Encore Capital Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:ECPG) 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 EPZM might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: None

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