Should You Buy MasTec, Inc. (MTZ)?

Because MasTec, Inc. (NYSE:MTZ) has witnessed unchanged sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, we ought to look at a sect of funds that decided to sell off their entire stakes last quarter. At the top of the heap, Neil Chriss’s Hutchin Hill Capital sold off the largest stake of the “upper crust” of funds watched by Insider Monkey, worth an estimated $22.4 million in stock, and Doug Gordon, Jon Hilsabeck and Don Jabro’s Shellback Capital was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $8.6 million worth of MTZ shares. These bearish behaviors are important to note, as total hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to MasTec, Inc. (NYSE:MTZ). We will take a look at Vishay Intertechnology (NYSE:VSH), Intersil Corp (NASDAQ:ISIL), Penumbra Inc (NYSE:PEN), and Office Depot Inc (NYSE:ODP). All of these stocks’ market caps are similar to MTZ’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $258 million. That figure was $294 million in MTZ’s case. Office Depot Inc (NYSE:ODP) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Vishay Intertechnology (NYSE:VSH) and Penumbra Inc (NYSE:PEN) are the least popular ones with only 17 bullish hedge fund positions each. MasTec, Inc. (NYSE:MTZ) 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 ODP might be a better candidate to consider a long position.

Disclosure: none.