Layne Christensen Company (LAYN): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock?

We, at Insider Monkey, have gone over 700 13F filings that hedge funds and prominent investors are required to file by the government. The 13F filings show the funds’ and investors’ portfolio positions as of September 30. In this article, we look at what those funds think of Layne Christensen Company (NASDAQ:LAYN) based on that data.

Is Layne Christensen Company (NASDAQ:LAYN) a buy right now? Money managers are getting less optimistic. The number of long hedge fund positions dropped by 7 lately. At the end of this article, we will also compare Layne Christensen Company (NASDAQ:LAYN) to other stocks, including BioScrip Inc. (NASDAQ:BIOS), Harvard Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ:HBIO), and Alcobra Ltd (NASDAQ:ADHD) to get a better sense of its popularity.

To most stock holders, hedge funds are viewed as underperforming, outdated investment vehicles of years past. While there are over 8000 funds with their doors open today, We choose to focus on the aristocrats of this group, approximately 700 funds. These money managers command the lion’s share of all hedge funds’ total capital, and by following their first-class equity investments, Insider Monkey has identified numerous investment strategies that have historically outpaced the S&P 500 index. Insider Monkey’s small-cap hedge fund strategy beat the S&P 500 index by 12 percentage points a year for a decade in their back tests.

With all of this in mind, let’s take a gander at the new action encompassing Layne Christensen Company (NASDAQ:LAYN).

How have hedgies been trading Layne Christensen Company (NASDAQ:LAYN)?

At the end of the third quarter, a total of 9 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a drop of 44% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).

Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Peter Schliemann’s Rutabaga Capital Management has the most valuable position in Layne Christensen Company (NASDAQ:LAYN), worth close to $14.2 million, accounting for 1.7% of its total 13F portfolio. On Rutabaga Capital Management’s heels is Royce & Associates, led by Chuck Royce, holding a $9.7 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining professional money managers that hold long positions include Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors, David Iben’s Kopernik Global Investors, and Nelson Obus’ Wynnefield Capital.