How STAAR Surgical Company (STAA) Stacks Up Against Its Peers

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Now that we’ve mentioned the most bullish investors, let’s also take a look at some funds that dumped their entire stakes in the stock during the third quarter. At the top of the heap, Philip Hempleman’s Ardsley Partners dumped the biggest position of the 700 funds watched by Insider Monkey, valued at close to $0.4 million in stock. Gregory Fraser, Rudolph Kluiber, and Timothy Krochuk’s fund, GRT Capital Partners, also dropped its stock, about $0.1 million worth.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to STAAR Surgical Company (NASDAQ:STAA). These stocks are Arbor Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ABR), The York Water Company (NASDAQ:YORW), Moneygram International Inc (NYSE:MGI), and IXYS Corporation (NASDAQ:IXYS). This group of stocks’ market values are closest to STAA’s market value.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
ABR 8 8906 -1
YORW 5 11670 -2
MGI 14 71941 -1
IXYS 11 37606 -1

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 $33 million. That figure was $138 million in STAA’s case. Moneygram International Inc (NYSE:MGI) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand The York Water Company (NASDAQ:YORW) is the least popular one with only 5 bullish hedge fund positions. STAAR Surgical Company (NASDAQ:STAA) 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 MGI might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: None

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