Is STERIS Plc (STE) A Good Stock To Buy?

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Since STERIS Plc (NYSE:STE) has experienced bearish sentiment from the smart money, logic holds that there is a sect of funds who sold off their entire stakes by the end of the third quarter. Intriguingly, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates dropped the largest position of all the hedgies followed by Insider Monkey, valued at close to $25.4 million in stock, and Benjamin A. Smith’s Laurion Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund cut about $16.9 million worth of shares.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to STERIS Plc (NYSE:STE). We will take a look at Black Knight Financial Services Inc (NYSE:BKFS), Flowserve Corporation (NYSE:FLS), Jacobs Engineering Group Inc (NYSE:JEC), and Zillow Inc (NASDAQ:Z). This group of stocks’ market caps match STE’s market cap.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
BKFS 9 15797 -2
FLS 26 402485 -6
JEC 17 147916 -1
Z 26 614342 0

As you can see these stocks had an average of 20 funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $295 million. That figure was $629 million in STE’s case. Flowserve Corporation (NYSE:FLS) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Black Knight Financial Services Inc (NYSE:BKFS) is the least popular one with only nine bullish hedge fund positions. STERIS Plc (NYSE:STE) 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 Flowserve Corporation (NYSE:FLS) might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: none

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