TriMas Corp (TRS): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock?

The Insider Monkey team has completed processing the quarterly 13F filings for the September quarter submitted by the hedge funds and other money managers included in our extensive database. Most hedge funds have been producing disappointing net returns in recent years, however that was partly due to the poor performance of small-cap stocks in general. Well, small-cap stocks finally turned the corner and have been beating the large-cap stocks by more than 10 percentage points over the last 5 months.This means the relevancy of hedge funds’ public filings became inarguable, as they may reveal numerous high-potential stocks. The following article will discuss the smart money sentiment towards TriMas Corp (NASDAQ:TRS).

TriMas Corp (NASDAQ:TRS) witnessed a slight increase in hedge fund interest during the third quarter and, at the end of September, 17 funds tracked by Insider Monkey held shares of the company. The level and the change in hedge fund popularity aren’t the only variables you need to analyze to decipher hedge funds’ perspectives. A stock may witness a boost in popularity but it may still be less popular than similarly priced stocks. That’s why at the end of this article we will examine companies such as Transocean Partners LLC (NYSE:RIGP), Insys Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:INSY), and Fifth Street Finance Corp. (NASDAQ:FSC) to gather more data points.

At Insider Monkey, we’ve developed an investment strategy that has delivered market-beating returns over the past 12 months. Our strategy identifies the 100 best-performing funds of the previous quarter from among the collection of 700+ successful funds that we track in our database, which we accomplish using our returns methodology. We then study the portfolios of those 100 funds using the latest 13F data to uncover the 30 most popular mid-cap stocks (market caps of between $1 billion and $10 billion) among them to hold until the next filing period. This strategy delivered 18% gains over the past 12 months, more than doubling the 8% returns enjoyed by the S&P 500 ETFs.

Now, we’re going to take a look at the key action surrounding TriMas Corp (NASDAQ:TRS).

What have hedge funds been doing with TriMas Corp (NASDAQ:TRS)?

The number of funds from our database bullish on TriMas Corp inched up by one to 17 during the third quarter. On the other hand, there were a total of 12 hedge funds with a bullish position in TRS at the beginning of this year. So, let’s see which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Richard S. Pzena’s Pzena Investment Management holds the largest position in TriMas Corp (NASDAQ:TRS) which has a $25.6 million position in the stock. Coming in second is Amy Minella’s Cardinal Capital holding a $15.9 million position. Remaining professional money managers that are bullish contain Ric Dillon’s Diamond Hill Capital, Glenn W. Welling’s Engaged Capital, and T Boone Pickens’ BP Capital. We should note that BP Capital is among our list of the 100 best performing hedge funds which is based on the performance of their 13F long positions in non-microcap stocks.

As aggregate interest increased, some big names have been driving this bullishness. Neil Chriss’ Hutchin Hill Capital established the most outsized position in TriMas Corp (NASDAQ:TRS). Hutchin Hill Capital had $0.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management also made a $0.5 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The only other fund with a new position in the stock is Cliff Asness’ AQR Capital Management.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to TriMas Corp (NASDAQ:TRS). These stocks are Transocean Partners LLC (NYSE:RIGP), Insys Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:INSY), Fifth Street Finance Corp. (NASDAQ:FSC), and Southside Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:SBSI). All of these stocks’ market caps are closest to TRS’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 12 investors holding long positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $85 million. That figure was $73 million in TRS’s case. Insys Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:INSY) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Southside Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:SBSI) is the least popular one with only six bullish hedge fund positions. TriMas Corp (NASDAQ:TRS) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard Insys Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:INSY) might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: None