Is DST Systems, Inc. (DST) A Good Stock To Buy?

Since DST Systems, Inc. (NYSE:DST) has experienced bearish sentiment from the smart money, logic holds that there exist a select few fund managers that slashed their positions entirely heading into Q4. Intriguingly, Clifford Fox’s Columbus Circle Investors sold off the largest investment of the “upper crust” of funds tracked by Insider Monkey, worth about $48.7 million in stock, and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $7.7 million worth. These bearish behaviors are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 1 funds heading into Q4.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as DST Systems, Inc. (NYSE:DST) but similarly valued. These stocks are MSC Industrial Direct Co Inc (NYSE:MSM), Cinemark Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CNK), Amsurg Corp (NASDAQ:AMSG), and Restoration Hardware Holdings Inc (NYSE:RH). This group of stocks’ market valuations resemble DST’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 26 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $506 million. That figure was $279 million in DST’s case. Restoration Hardware Holdings Inc (NYSE:RH) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Cinemark Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CNK) is the least popular one with only 19 bullish hedge fund positions. DST Systems, Inc. (NYSE:DST) is not the least popular stock in this group, but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal, and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are most collectively bullish on, such as RH in this group.