Should You Avoid The Hanover Insurance Group Inc (THG)?

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We already know that not all hedge funds are bullish on the stock and some hedge funds actually dropped their positions entirely. Intriguingly, Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP dropped the biggest stake of the “upper crust” of funds tracked by Insider Monkey, worth close to $1.6 million in stock. Dmitry Balyasny’s fund, Balyasny Asset Management, also dropped its stock, about $0.5 million worth.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as The Hanover Insurance Group Inc (NYSE:THG) but similarly valued. These stocks are SINA Corp (NASDAQ:SINA), Medical Properties Trust, Inc. (NYSE:MPW), Tribune Media Co (NYSE:TRCO), and Euronet Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:EEFT). All of these stocks’ market caps resemble THG’s market cap.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
SINA 33 796653 12
MPW 23 211104 11
TRCO 25 1258033 2
EEFT 22 233336 -6

As you can see these stocks had an average of 26 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $625 million. That figure was $172 million in THG’s case. SINA Corp (NASDAQ:SINA) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Euronet Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:EEFT) is the least popular one with only 22 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks The Hanover Insurance Group Inc (NYSE:THG) is even less popular than EEFT. Considering that hedge funds aren’t fond of this stock in relation to other companies analyzed in this article, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and understand why the smart money isn’t behind this stock. This isn’t necessarily bad news. Although it is possible that hedge funds may think the stock is overpriced and view the stock as a short candidate, they may not be very familiar with the bullish thesis. In either case more research is warranted.

Disclosure: None

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