Is Mattel, Inc. (MAT) A Good Stock To Buy?

Judging by the fact that Mattel, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAT) has experienced declining sentiment from hedge fund managers, logic holds that there exists a select few funds that decided to sell off their positions entirely by the end of the third quarter. Interestingly, Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management said goodbye to the largest investment of the 700 funds monitored by Insider Monkey, valued at an estimated $29.6 million in stock. Jim Simons’s fund, Renaissance Technologies, also dumped its stock, about $19.5 million worth. These bearish behaviors are important to note, as total hedge fund interest fell by 5 funds by the end of the third quarter.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Mattel, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAT). We will take a look at FMC Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:FTI), Splunk Inc (NASDAQ:SPLK), Pinnacle West Capital Corporation (NYSE:PNW), and Aramark (NYSE:ARMK). All of these stocks’ market caps resemble MAT’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 31.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1,182 million. That figure was $456 million in MAT’s case. Aramark (NYSE:ARMK) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Pinnacle West Capital Corporation (NYSE:PNW) is the least popular one with only 18 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Mattel, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAT) is even less popular than PNW. Considering that hedge funds aren’t fond of this stock in relation to other companies analyzed in this article, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and understand why the smart money isn’t behind this stock. This isn’t necessarily bad news. Although it is possible that hedge funds may think the stock is overpriced and view the stock as a short candidate, they may not be very familiar with the bullish thesis. In either case more research is warranted.