Is AirNet Technology Inc. (ANTE) A Good Stock To Buy?

Last year we predicted the arrival of the first US recession since 2009 and we told in advance that the market will decline by at least 20% in (Recession is Imminent: We Need A Travel Ban NOW). In these volatile markets we scrutinize hedge fund filings to get a reading on which direction each stock might be going. In this article, we will take a closer look at hedge fund sentiment towards AirNet Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:ANTE).

Is ANTE a good stock to buy? AirNet Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:ANTE) shareholders have witnessed an increase in hedge fund interest in recent months. AirNet Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:ANTE) was in 3 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of March. The all time high for this statistic is 1. This means the bullish number of hedge fund positions in this stock currently sits at its all time high. Our calculations also showed that ANTE isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings).

At the moment there are numerous indicators stock traders use to analyze stocks. A couple of the most innovative indicators are hedge fund and insider trading activity. Our researchers have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best money managers can outperform the S&P 500 by a solid margin (see the details here). Also, our monthly newsletter’s portfolio of long stock picks returned 206.8% since March 2017 (through May 2021) and beat the S&P 500 Index by more than 115 percentage points. You can download a sample issue of this newsletter on our website .

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Do Hedge Funds Think ANTE Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?

At the end of March, a total of 3 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 200% from one quarter earlier. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards ANTE over the last 23 quarters. So, let’s check out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

Among these funds, Paloma Partners held the most valuable stake in AirNet Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:ANTE), which was worth $0.2 million at the end of the fourth quarter. On the second spot was Citadel Investment Group which amassed $0.1 million worth of shares. Citadel Investment Group was also very fond of the stock, becoming one of the largest hedge fund holders of the company. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Paloma Partners allocated the biggest weight to AirNet Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:ANTE), around 0.0043% of its 13F portfolio. PEAK6 Capital Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, dishing out 0.0002 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to ANTE.

Consequently, key hedge funds were leading the bulls’ herd. Paloma Partners, managed by Donald Sussman, established the most outsized position in AirNet Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:ANTE). Paloma Partners had $0.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management also initiated a $0.1 million position during the quarter.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as AirNet Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:ANTE) but similarly valued. These stocks are MV Oil Trust (NYSE:MVO), Perma-Pipe International Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PPIH), NanoViricides Inc (NYSE:NNVC), Bio-Path Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:BPTH), iFresh Inc. (NASDAQ:IFMK), Permianville Royalty Trust (NYSE:PVL), and Flexible Solutions International, Inc. (NYSE:FSI). This group of stocks’ market caps are similar to ANTE’s market cap.

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As you can see these stocks had an average of 1.7 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1 million. That figure was $0 million in ANTE’s case. Bio-Path Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:BPTH) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand MV Oil Trust (NYSE:MVO) is the least popular one with only 1 bullish hedge fund positions. AirNet Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:ANTE) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for ANTE is 87. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. Our calculations showed that top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 95.8% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 40 percentage points. These stocks gained 17.2% in 2021 through June 11th and beat the market again by 3.3 percentage points. Unfortunately ANTE wasn’t nearly as popular as these 5 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on ANTE were disappointed as the stock returned -12% since the end of March (through 6/11) and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds as many of these stocks already outperformed the market since 2019.

Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.