Should You Buy Nordson Corporation (NDSN)?

Consequently, specific money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Echo Street Capital Management, managed by Greg Poole, established the most valuable position in Nordson Corporation (NASDAQ:NDSN). The fund had $14.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Michael Platt and William Reeves’s BlueCrest Capital Mgmt. also initiated a $3.1 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP, Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management, and Peter Muller’s PDT Partners.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Nordson Corporation (NASDAQ:NDSN) but similarly valued. We will take a look at DST Systems, Inc. (NYSE:DST), MSC Industrial Direct Co Inc (NYSE:MSM), Cinemark Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CNK), and Amsurg Corp (NASDAQ:AMSG). This group of stocks’ market caps are closest to NDSN’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 22 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $333 million. That figure is just $73 million in NDSN’s case. DST Systems, Inc. (NYSE:DST) is the most popular stock in this table, while Cinemark Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CNK) is the least popular one with only 19 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Nordson Corporation (NASDAQ:NDSN) is even less popular than CNK. 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.