Is K2M Group Holdings Inc (KTWO) A Good Stock To Buy?

A whopping number of 13F filings filed with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has been processed by Insider Monkey so that individual investors can look at the overall hedge fund sentiment towards the stocks included in their watchlists. These freshly-submitted public filings disclose money managers’ equity positions as of the end of the three-month period that ended September 30, so let’s proceed with the discussion of the hedge fund sentiment on K2M Group Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:KTWO).

K2M Group Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:KTWO) has seen a decrease in hedge fund sentiment of late. KTWO was in 10 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. There were 11 hedge funds in our database with KTWO positions at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of this article we will also compare KTWO to other stocks including Just Energy Group, Inc. Ordinary Shares (Canada) (NYSE:JE), Viad Corp (NYSE:VVI), and National Western Life Insurance Company (NASDAQ:NWLI) to get a better sense of its popularity.

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What does the smart money think about K2M Group Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:KTWO)?

At the end of the third quarter, a total of 10 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, down by 9% from the previous quarter. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards KTWO over the last 5 quarters. So, let’s see which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

HedgeFundSentimentChart

According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Eric Bannasch’s Cadian Capital has the largest position in K2M Group Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:KTWO), worth close to $13.4 million. The second largest stake is held by Principal Global Investors’ Columbus Circle Investors, which holds a $7 million position. Remaining peers with similar optimism encompass Efrem Kamen’s Pura Vida Investments, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management which is one of the 10 largest hedge funds in the world and Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management. We should note that none of these hedge funds are among our list of the 100 best performing hedge funds which is based on the performance of their 13F long positions in non-microcap stocks.

Now that we’ve mentioned the most bullish investors, let’s also take a look at some funds that sold off their entire stakes in the stock during the third quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Michael Murphy and Daniel Donoghue’s Discovery Group sold off the biggest stake of all the investors studied by Insider Monkey, valued at an estimated $5 million in stock, and John Paulson’s Paulson & Co was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $0.7 million worth of shares.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to K2M Group Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:KTWO). We will take a look at Just Energy Group, Inc. Ordinary Shares (Canada) (NYSE:JE), Viad Corp (NYSE:VVI), National Western Life Insurance Company (NASDAQ:NWLI), and Tobira Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:TBRA). This group of stocks’ market caps are similar to KTWO’s market cap.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
JE 9 15531 -2
VVI 14 128142 -1
NWLI 7 13390 0
TBRA 15 373476 8

As you can see these stocks had an average of 11 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $133 million. That figure was $50 million in KTWO’s case. Tobira Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:TBRA) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand National Western Life Insurance Company (NASDAQ:NWLI) is the least popular one with only 7 bullish hedge fund positions. K2M Group Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:KTWO) 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 TBRA might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: None