Is Bloomin’ Brands Inc (BLMN) A Good Stock To Buy According To Hedge Funds?

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Seeing as Bloomin’ Brands Inc (NASDAQ:BLMN) has experienced a decline in interest from the smart money, it’s easy to see that there exists a select few funds that elected to cut their positions entirely by the end of the third quarter. At the top of the heap, Thomas E. Claugus’s GMT Capital dumped the biggest stake of the 700 funds monitored by Insider Monkey, totaling close to $13 million in stock. Bruce Kovner’s fund, Caxton Associates LP, also sold off its stock, about $11.1 million worth. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 2 funds by the end of the third quarter.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Bloomin’ Brands Inc (NASDAQ:BLMN) but similarly valued. These stocks are Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA), Pinnacle Financial Partners (NASDAQ:PNFP), Monro Muffler Brake Inc (NASDAQ:MNRO), and Sterling Bancorp (NYSE:STL). This group of stocks’ market caps resemble BLMN’s market cap.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
PEGA 16 223417 -4
PNFP 10 21950 5
MNRO 13 216304 0
STL 13 77719 4

As you can see these stocks had an average of 13 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $135 million. That figure was $104 million in BLMN’s case. Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Pinnacle Financial Partners (NASDAQ:PNFP) is the least popular one with only 10 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Bloomin’ Brands Inc (NASDAQ:BLMN) 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.

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