Is Comfort Systems USA, Inc. (FIX) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds?

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Is Comfort Systems USA, Inc. (NYSE:FIX) worth your attention right now? The best stock pickers are in a bullish mood. The number of bullish hedge fund positions advanced by 2 lately.

In the eyes of most traders, hedge funds are viewed as slow, old investment tools of yesteryear. While there are over 8000 funds with their doors open today, we choose to focus on the masters of this group, close to 450 funds. It is estimated that this group has its hands on most of the smart money’s total capital, and by keeping an eye on their highest performing stock picks, we have formulated a few investment strategies that have historically outpaced the S&P 500 index. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per annum for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve began to sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have outpaced the S&P 500 index by 24 percentage points in 7 months (check out a sample of our picks).

Equally as integral, optimistic insider trading sentiment is a second way to break down the world of equities. Obviously, there are lots of motivations for an upper level exec to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would initiate a purchase. Several academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this strategy if shareholders know where to look (learn more here).

Consequently, let’s take a gander at the key action encompassing Comfort Systems USA, Inc. (NYSE:FIX).

How have hedgies been trading Comfort Systems USA, Inc. (NYSE:FIX)?

Heading into 2013, a total of 7 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 40% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings considerably.

Of the funds we track, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the largest position in Comfort Systems USA, Inc. (NYSE:FIX). Royce & Associates has a $10.7 million position in the stock, comprising less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Cliff Asness of AQR Capital Management, with a $0.5 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other peers that hold long positions include Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management, D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw and John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors.

Comfort Systems USA, Inc. (NYSE:FIX)As aggregate interest increased, specific money managers have jumped into Comfort Systems USA, Inc. (NYSE:FIX) headfirst. Gotham Asset Management, managed by Joel Greenblatt, created the largest position in Comfort Systems USA, Inc. (NYSE:FIX). Gotham Asset Management had 0.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors also made a $0.2 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The only other fund with a brand new FIX position is Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

Insider trading activity in Comfort Systems USA, Inc. (NYSE:FIX)

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is most useful when the company in question has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last 180-day time period, Comfort Systems USA, Inc. (NYSE:FIX) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 5 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Comfort Systems USA, Inc. (NYSE:FIX). These stocks are Quanta Services Inc (NYSE:PWR), Emcor Group Inc (NYSE:EME), Integrated Electrical Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:IESC), Pike Electric Corporation (NYSE:PIKE), and MYR Group Inc (NASDAQ:MYRG). This group of stocks are in the general contractors industry and their market caps resemble FIX’s market cap.

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