Is Ocean Shore Holding Co (OSHC) A Good Stock To Buy?

Based on the fact that hedge funds have collectively under-performed the market for several years, it would be easy to assume that their stock picks simply aren’t very good. However, our research shows this not to be the case. In fact, when it comes to their very top picks collectively, they show a strong ability to pick winning stocks. Between November 1, 2014 and October 30 of this year, less than 49% of the stocks in the S&P 500 beat the market. However, hedge funds’ top 30 stock picks from the index had a much higher success rate than this, at 63%. The returns from these 30 stocks also easily bested the broader market, at 9.5% compared to 5.2%, despite there being a few duds in there like Micron and Anadarko (even their collective wisdom isn’t perfect). The results show that there is plenty of merit to imitating the collective wisdom of top investors.

Ocean Shore Holding Co (NASDAQ:OSHC) was in 6 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. OSHC shareholders have witnessed an increase in hedge fund interest recently. There were 5 hedge funds in our database with OSHC positions at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of this article we will also compare OSHC to other stocks including FinTech Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ:FNTCU), Kindred Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:KIN), and Turtle Beach Corp (NASDAQ:HEAR) to get a better sense of its popularity.

Follow Ocean Shore Holding Co. (NASDAQ:OSHC)

What have hedge funds been doing with Ocean Shore Holding Co (NASDAQ:OSHC)?

Heading into Q4, a total of 6 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish in this stock, a change of 20% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).

According to Insider Monkey’s hedge fund database, John Petry’s Sessa Capital has the largest position in Ocean Shore Holding Co (NASDAQ:OSHC), worth close to $3.3 million, corresponding to 1.3% of its total 13F portfolio. On Sessa Capital’s heels is Tontine Asset Management, led by Jeffrey Gendell, holding a $1.7 million position; the fund has 0.3% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other peers with similar optimism encompass Neil Chriss’s Hutchin Hill Capital, Bruce Silver’s Silver Capital Management LLC and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.

As one would reasonably expect, some big names were leading the bulls’ herd. Silver Capital Management LLC, managed by Bruce Silver, assembled the most valuable position in Ocean Shore Holding Co (NASDAQ:OSHC). Silver Capital Management LLC had $0.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Gavin Saitowitz and Cisco J. del Valle’s Springbok Capital also initiated a $0.1 million position during the quarter.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Ocean Shore Holding Co (NASDAQ:OSHC). We will take a look at FinTech Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ:FNTCU), Kindred Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:KIN), Turtle Beach Corp (NASDAQ:HEAR), and AxoGen, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXGN). All of these stocks’ market caps are similar to OSHC’s market cap.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
FNTCU 7 30088 1
KIN 12 44308 -2
HEAR 4 1168 1
AXGN 4 23914 1

As you can see these stocks had an average of 6.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $25 million.That figure was $7 millions in OSHC’s case. Kindred Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:KIN) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Turtle Beach Corp (NASDAQ:HEAR) is the least popular one with only 4 bullish hedge fund positions. Ocean Shore Holding Co (NASDAQ:OSHC) 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 KIN might be a better candidate to consider a long position.