Is Trinity Biotech plc (ADR) (TRIB) A Good Stock To Buy?

Hedge funds run by legendary names like Nelson Peltz and David Tepper make billions of dollars a year for themselves and their super-rich accredited investors (you’ve got to have a minimum of $1 million liquid to invest in a hedge fund) by spending enormous resources on analyzing and uncovering data about small-cap stocks that the big brokerage houses don’t follow. Small caps are where they can generate significant out-performance. These stocks have been on a tear since the end of June, outperforming large-cap index funds by more than 10 percentage points. That’s why we pay special attention to hedge fund activity in these stocks.

Trinity Biotech plc (ADR) (NASDAQ:TRIB) was in 14 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2016. TRIB investors should pay attention to an increase in hedge fund sentiment of late. There were 13 hedge funds in our database with TRIB holdings at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of this article we will also compare TRIB to other stocks including CONN’S, Inc. (NASDAQ:CONN), Bridgepoint Education Inc (NYSE:BPI), and Natural Health Trends Corp. (NASDAQ:NHTC) to get a better sense of its popularity.

At Insider Monkey, we’ve developed an investment strategy that has delivered market-beating returns over the past 12 months. Our strategy identifies the 100 best-performing funds of the previous quarter from among the collection of 700+ successful funds that we track in our database, which we accomplish using our returns methodology. We then study the portfolios of those 100 funds using the latest 13F data to uncover the 30 most popular mid-cap stocks (market caps of between $1 billion and $10 billion) among them to hold until the next filing period. This strategy delivered 18% gains over the past 12 months, more than doubling the 8% returns enjoyed by the S&P 500 ETFs.

What does the smart money think about Trinity Biotech plc (ADR) (NASDAQ:TRIB)?

Heading into the fourth quarter of 2016, a total of 14 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a rise of 8% from the previous quarter. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish positions in TRIB over the last 5 quarters, which has remained steady in 2016 after a steep decline at the end of 2015. So, let’s find out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Richard S. Meisenberg’s ACK Asset Management has the largest position in Trinity Biotech plc (ADR) (NASDAQ:TRIB), worth close to $13 million, corresponding to 3.9% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Park West Asset Management, led by Peter S. Park, holding an $11.3 million position; the fund has 1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedge funds and institutional investors that hold long positions comprise Richard Mashaal’s RIMA Senvest Management, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates,and Peter S. Park’s Park West Asset Management. We should note that none of these hedge funds are among our list of the 100 best performing hedge funds which is based on the performance of their 13F long positions in non-microcap stocks.

As one would reasonably expect, some big names were breaking ground themselves. Adage Capital Management, led by Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson, initiated the most outsized position in Trinity Biotech plc (ADR) (NASDAQ:TRIB). Adage Capital Management had $1.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Trinity Biotech plc (ADR) (NASDAQ:TRIB). We will take a look at CONN’S, Inc. (NASDAQ:CONN), Bridgepoint Education Inc (NYSE:BPI), Natural Health Trends Corp. (NASDAQ:NHTC), and Tuniu Corp (NASDAQ:TOUR). All of these stocks’ market caps resemble TRIB’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 11 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $42 million. That figure was $57 million in TRIB’s case. CONN’S, Inc. (NASDAQ:CONN) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Tuniu Corp (NASDAQ:TOUR) is the least popular one with only 7 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Trinity Biotech plc (ADR) (NASDAQ:TRIB) is more popular among hedge funds. Considering that hedge funds are fond of this stock in relation to its market cap peers, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and potentially include it in your portfolio.

Disclosure: None