How US Concrete Inc (USCR) Stacks Up Against Its Peers

It seems that the masses and most of the financial media hate hedge funds and what they do, but why is this hatred of hedge funds so prominent? At the end of the day, these asset management firms do not gamble the hard-earned money of the people who are on the edge of poverty. Truth be told, most hedge fund managers and other smaller players within this industry are very smart and skilled investors. Of course, they may also make wrong bets in some instances, but no one knows what the future holds and how market participants will react to the bountiful news that floods in each day. The S&P 500 Index gained 7.6% in the 12 month-period that ended November 21, while less than 49% of its stocks beat the benchmark. In contrast, the 30 most popular mid-cap stocks among the top hedge fund investors tracked by the Insider Monkey team returned 18% over the same period, which provides evidence that these money managers do have great stock picking abilities. That’s why we believe it isn’t a waste of time to check out hedge fund sentiment before you invest in a stock like US Concrete Inc (NASDAQ:USCR).

Hedge fund interest in US Concrete Inc (NASDAQ:USCR) shares was flat at the end of last quarter. This is usually a negative indicator. 23 hedge funds that we track owned the stock on September 30, same as on June 30. At the end of this article we will also compare USCR to other stocks including Patrick Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:PATK), Repligen Corporation (NASDAQ:RGEN), and Briggs & Stratton Corporation (NYSE:BGG) to get a better sense of its popularity.

At Insider Monkey, we’ve developed an investment strategy that has delivered market-beating returns over the past 12 months. Our strategy identifies the 100 best-performing funds of the previous quarter from among the collection of 700+ successful funds that we track in our database, which we accomplish using our returns methodology. We then study the portfolios of those 100 funds using the latest 13F data to uncover the 30 most popular mid-cap stocks (market caps of between $1 billion and $10 billion) among them to hold until the next filing period. This strategy delivered 18% gains over the past 12 months, more than doubling the 8% returns enjoyed by the S&P 500 ETFs.

Hedge fund activity in US Concrete Inc (NASDAQ:USCR)

At the end of the third quarter, a total of 23 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, unchanged from one quarter earlier. Smart money ownership has trended back up after a steep slide in Q4 2015, but appears to have hit a wall again at 23 funds. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes significantly (or already accumulated large positions).

Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Scopus Asset Management, managed by Alexander Mitchell, holds the most valuable position in US Concrete Inc (NASDAQ:USCR). Scopus Asset Management has a $34.5 million position in the stock. The second most bullish fund manager is Steve Cohen of Point72 Asset Management, with a $21.2 million position. Remaining peers that are bullish contain Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and Mark Coe’s Coe Capital Management.

Because US Concrete Inc (NASDAQ:USCR) has witnessed falling interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s safe to say that there were a few fund managers that elected to cut their full holdings last quarter. At the top of the heap, Richard Driehaus’ Driehaus Capital said goodbye to the largest stake of the “upper crust” of funds monitored by Insider Monkey, valued at close to $5.2 million in stock. Jim Simons’ fund, Renaissance Technologies, also said goodbye to its stock, about $2.2 million worth. These transactions are interesting, as total hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to US Concrete Inc (NASDAQ:USCR). We will take a look at Patrick Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:PATK), Repligen Corporation (NASDAQ:RGEN), Briggs & Stratton Corporation (NYSE:BGG), and Ethan Allen Interiors Inc. (NYSE:ETH). All of these stocks’ market caps match USCR’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 16 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $92 million. That figure was $134 million in USCR’s case. Briggs & Stratton Corporation (NYSE:BGG) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Ethan Allen Interiors Inc. (NYSE:ETH) is the least popular one with only 13 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks US Concrete Inc (NASDAQ:USCR) 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