Should You Consider Oppenheimer Holdings Inc. (USA) (OPY) For Your Portfolio?

Hedge funds and other investment firms that we track manage billions of dollars of their wealthy clients’ money, and needless to say, they are painstakingly thorough when analyzing where to invest this money, as their own wealth depends on it. Regardless of the various methods used by elite investors like David Tepper and Dan Loeb, the resources they expend are second-to-none. This is especially valuable when it comes to small-cap stocks, which is where they generate their strongest outperformance, as their resources give them a huge edge when it comes to studying these stocks compared to the average investor, which is why we intently follow their activity in the small-cap space.

Is Oppenheimer Holdings Inc. (USA) (NYSE:OPY) the right pick for your portfolio? Money managers are taking an optimistic view. The number of long hedge fund bets advanced by two in the third quarter. At the end of this article, we will also compare Oppenheimer Holdings Inc. (USA) (NYSE:OPY) to other stocks including TechTarget Inc (NASDAQ:TTGT), Pacific Biosciences of California (NASDAQ:PACB), and Ameresco Inc (NYSE:AMRC) to get a better sense of its popularity.

In the 21st century investor’s toolkit there are numerous metrics investors employ to grade publicly traded companies. A pair of the less known metrics are hedge fund and insider trading indicators. our researchers have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite investment managers can trounce the market by a very impressive amount (see the details here).

Keeping this in mind, let’s check out the fresh action surrounding Oppenheimer Holdings Inc. (USA) (NYSE:OPY).

How have hedgies been trading Oppenheimer Holdings Inc. (USA) (NYSE:OPY)?

At the end of Q3, a total of ten of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long in this stock, an increase of 25% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings significantly (or already accumulated large positions).

Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, GMT Capital, managed by Thomas E. Claugus, holds the number one position in Oppenheimer Holdings Inc. (USA) (NYSE:OPY). GMT Capital has a $9.6 million position in the stock, comprising 0.2% of its 13F portfolio. On GMT Capital’s heels is Gregg J. Powers of Private Capital Management, with an $8 million position; the fund has 1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedgies with similar optimism contain Paul J. Isaac’s Arbiter Partners Capital Management, Chuck Royce’s mutual fund Royce & Associates, and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.

With general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, specific money managers were breaking ground themselves. Millennium Management created the most outsized position in Oppenheimer Holdings Inc. (USA) (NYSE:OPY). Millennium Management had $0.7 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management also initiated a $0.3 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new Oppenheimer positions are Chao Ku’s Nine Chapters Capital Management and Gavin Saitowitz and Cisco J. del Valle’s Springbok Capital.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Oppenheimer Holdings Inc. (USA) (NYSE:OPY) but similarly valued. These stocks are TechTarget Inc (NASDAQ:TTGT), Pacific Biosciences of California (NASDAQ:PACB), Ameresco Inc (NYSE:AMRC), and CTC Media, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTCM). All of these stocks’ market caps are similar to Oppenheimer Holdings Inc. (USA) (NYSE:OPY)’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 10 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $38 million. That figure was $31 million in Oppenheimer Holdings Inc. (USA) (NYSE:OPY)’s case. TechTarget Inc (NASDAQ:TTGT) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand, Ameresco Inc (NYSE:AMRC) is the least popular one with only seven bullish hedge fund positions. Oppenheimer Holdings Inc. (USA) (NYSE:OPY) 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 TechTarget Inc (NASDAQ:TTGT) might be a better candidate to consider a long position in.