Is Actuant Corporation (ATU) Worthy of Your Portfolio?

Consequently, some big names have jumped into Actuant Corporation (NYSE:ATU) headfirst. Mountain Lake Investment Management assembled the most valuable position in Actuant Corporation (NYSE:ATU), which was worth $6 million at the end of the third quarter. David E. Shaw’s D E Shaw also initiated a $5.1 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new ATU positions are Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital, Michael Platt and William Reeves’ BlueCrest Capital Mgmt., and Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Actuant Corporation (NYSE:ATU) but similarly valued. These stocks are The E.W. Scripps Company (NYSE:SSP), Apogee Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:APOG), Rambus Inc. (NASDAQ:RMBS), and Adecoagro SA (NYSE:AGRO). All of these stocks’ market caps are similar to ATU’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 15 funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $171 million, compared to $248 million in ATU’s case. Adecoagro SA (NYSE:AGRO) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand The E.W. Scripps Company (NYSE:SSP) is the least popular one with only 10 investors holding shares. Actuant Corporation (NYSE:ATU) is not the most popular stock in this group, but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard Adecoagro SA (NYSE:AGRO) might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: None