Is Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (USA) (TSEM) a Good Buy?

Since Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (USA) (NASDAQ:TSEM) has faced falling interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, we can see that there was a specific group of funds who sold off their entire stakes by the end of the third quarter. Interestingly, Richard Driehaus’ Driehaus Capital dumped the largest investment of the “upper crust” of funds watched by Insider Monkey, valued at close to $9.2 million in stock, and Mark Kingdon’s Kingdon Capital was right behind this move, as the fund cut about $8.4 million worth. These moves are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 6 funds by the end of the third quarter.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (USA) (NASDAQ:TSEM) but similarly valued. We will take a look at First Merchants Corporation (NASDAQ:FRME), Rogers Corporation (NYSE:ROG), Boise Cascade Co (NYSE:BCC), and Semtech Corporation (NASDAQ:SMTC). This group of stocks’ market values are similar to TSEM’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 14 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $80 million. That figure was $149 million in TSEM’s case. Boise Cascade Co (NYSE:BCC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand First Merchants Corporation (NASDAQ:FRME) is the least popular one with only 8 bullish hedge fund positions. Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (USA) (NASDAQ:TSEM) 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 BCC might be a better candidate to consider a long position.