Should You Avoid Gartner Inc (IT)?

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Due to the fact that Gartner Inc (NYSE:IT) has experienced declining sentiment from the smart money, we can see that there was a specific group of hedge funds who were dropping their entire stakes in the third quarter. Interestingly, Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP cashed in the biggest investment of the 700 funds watched by Insider Monkey, comprising an estimated $9.2 million in stock, and Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital was right behind this move, as the fund said goodbye to about $7.6 million worth of shares.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Gartner Inc (NYSE:IT) but similarly valued. These stocks are Mid America Apartment Communities Inc (NYSE:MAA), Scripps Networks Interactive, Inc. (NYSE:SNI), Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI), and Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ:GRMN). This group of stocks’ market caps match IT’s market cap.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
MAA 15 206005 -2
SNI 23 1001763 2
DRI 29 452524 -2
GRMN 25 212834 8

As you can see these stocks had an average of 23 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $468 million. That figure was $352 million in IT’s case. Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Mid America Apartment Communities Inc (NYSE:MAA) is the least popular one with only 15 bullish hedge fund positions. Gartner Inc (NYSE:IT) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: None

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