Is Plantronics, Inc. (PLT) 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 Plantronics, Inc. (NYSE:PLT).

As Plantronics’ stock lost 10% in the third quarter, it registered a slight decrease in interest from the funds we track. Nevertheless, the stock was included in 15 funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter. However, the level and the change in hedge fund popularity aren’t the only variables you need to analyze to decipher hedge funds’ perspectives. A stock may witness a boost in popularity, but it may still be less popular than similarly priced stocks. That’s why at the end of this article we will examine companies such as CACI International Inc (NYSE:CACI), QTS Realty Trust Inc (NYSE:QTS), and Endurance International Group Hldgs Inc (NASDAQ:EIGI) to gather more data points.

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Keeping this in mind, let’s review the key action regarding Plantronics, Inc. (NYSE:PLT).

What does the smart money think about Plantronics, Inc. (NYSE:PLT)?

At the Q3’s end, a total of 15 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a decline of 6% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes considerably (or already accumulated large positions).

According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management has the number one position in Plantronics, Inc. (NYSE:PLT), worth close to $36.6 million, comprising 0.4% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Crosslink Capital, led by Seymour Sy Kaufman and Michael Stark, holding a $19.1 million position; the fund has 2.7% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedge funds and institutional investors that are bullish contain Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital, David Dreman’s Dreman Value Management, and Cliff Asness’ AQR Capital Management.

Judging by the fact that Plantronics, Inc. (NYSE:PLT) has experienced a declination in interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s easy to see that there is a sect of hedgies that elected to cut their full holdings in the third quarter. Interestingly, Charles Jobson’s Delta Partners dumped the biggest investment of the “upper crust” of funds followed by Insider Monkey, totaling an estimated $16.6 million in stock, and Brian Ashford-Russell and Tim Woolley’s Polar Capital was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $3.6 million worth. These moves are interesting, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 1 funds in the third quarter.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Plantronics, Inc. (NYSE:PLT) but similarly valued. These stocks are CACI International Inc (NYSE:CACI), QTS Realty Trust Inc (NYSE:QTS), Endurance International Group Hldgs Inc (NASDAQ:EIGI), and Pinnacle Financial Partners (NASDAQ:PNFP). All of these stocks’ market caps match PLT’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 13 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $75 million. That figure was $96 million in PLT’s case. Endurance International Group Hldgs Inc (NASDAQ:EIGI) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Pinnacle Financial Partners (NASDAQ:PNFP) is the least popular one with only 8 bullish hedge fund positions. Plantronics, Inc. (NYSE:PLT) is not the most popular stock in this group, but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal, but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard EIGI might be a better candidate to consider a long position.