Is Global Payments Inc (GPN) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds?

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Since Global Payments Inc (NYSE:GPN) has encountered falling interest from the smart money, it’s easy to see that there is a sect of funds that decided to sell off their entire stakes in the third quarter. Interestingly, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group cashed in the largest investment of all the hedgies monitored by Insider Monkey, comprising about $7.4 million in call options. George Hall’s fund, Clinton Group, also cut its stock, about $3.4 million worth.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Global Payments Inc (NYSE:GPN). These stocks are Quest Diagnostics Inc (NYSE:DGX), CMS Energy Corporation (NYSE:CMS), Cintas Corporation (NASDAQ:CTAS), and Vodafone Group Plc (ADR) (NASDAQ:VOD). This group of stocks’ market values match GPN’s market value.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
DGX 24 349248 -1
CMS 19 395362 1
CTAS 33 587766 6
VOD 18 445786 -4

As you can see these stocks had an average of 24 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $445 million. That figure was $436 million in GPN’s case. Cintas Corporation (NASDAQ:CTAS) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Vodafone Group Plc (ADR) (NASDAQ:VOD) is the least popular one with only 18 bullish hedge fund positions. Global Payments Inc (NYSE:GPN) 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 piling on. In this regard CTAS might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: None

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