Where Do Hedge Funds Stand On FormFactor, Inc. (FORM)?

In this article we will analyze whether FormFactor, Inc. (NASDAQ:FORM) is a good investment right now by following the lead of some of the best investors in the world and piggybacking their ideas. There’s no better way to get these firms’ immense resources and analytical capabilities working for us than to follow their lead into their best ideas. While not all of these picks will be winners, our research shows that these picks historically outperformed the market by double digits annually.

FormFactor, Inc. (NASDAQ:FORM) has experienced a decrease in support from the world’s most elite money managers in recent months. FormFactor, Inc. (NASDAQ:FORM) was in 20 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. The all time high for this statistic is 23. Our calculations also showed that FORM isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings and see the video for a quick look at the top 5 stocks).

Video: Watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.

Hedge funds’ reputation as shrewd investors has been tarnished in the last decade as their hedged returns couldn’t keep up with the unhedged returns of the market indices. Our research has shown that hedge funds’ small-cap stock picks managed to beat the market by double digits annually between 1999 and 2016, but the margin of outperformance has been declining in recent years. Nevertheless, we were still able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by 66 percentage points since March 2017 (see the details here). We were also able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that underperformed the market by 10 percentage points annually between 2006 and 2017. Interestingly the margin of underperformance of these stocks has been increasing in recent years. Investors who are long the market and short these stocks would have returned more than 27% annually between 2015 and 2017. We have been tracking and sharing the list of these stocks since February 2017 in our quarterly newsletter.

At Insider Monkey we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, Federal Reserve has been creating trillions of dollars electronically to keep the interest rates near zero. We believe this will lead to inflation and boost real estate prices. So, we recommended this real estate stock to our monthly premium newsletter subscribers. We go through lists like the 15 best blue chip stocks to pick the best large-cap stocks to buy. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. You can subscribe to our free daily newsletter on our website. Now let’s analyze the latest hedge fund action regarding FormFactor, Inc. (NASDAQ:FORM).

Do Hedge Funds Think FORM Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?

At third quarter’s end, a total of 20 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of -13% from the second quarter of 2020. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in FORM over the last 21 quarters. So, let’s examine which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

The largest stake in FormFactor, Inc. (NASDAQ:FORM) was held by Royce & Associates, which reported holding $15.9 million worth of stock at the end of September. It was followed by Arrowstreet Capital with a $14 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included Select Equity Group, Driehaus Capital, and Renaissance Technologies. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Crosslink Capital allocated the biggest weight to FormFactor, Inc. (NASDAQ:FORM), around 0.47% of its 13F portfolio. Driehaus Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, designating 0.17 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to FORM.

Seeing as FormFactor, Inc. (NASDAQ:FORM) has experienced bearish sentiment from the smart money, it’s easy to see that there lies a certain “tier” of money managers that slashed their entire stakes in the third quarter. Intriguingly, Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP sold off the biggest investment of all the hedgies monitored by Insider Monkey, comprising close to $4.9 million in stock, and Roger Ibbotson’s Zebra Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund cut about $0.6 million worth. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 3 funds in the third quarter.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to FormFactor, Inc. (NASDAQ:FORM). These stocks are Magellan Health Inc (NASDAQ:MGLN), Essential Properties Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:EPRT), Industrias Bachoco, S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE:IBA), Accolade, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACCD), Independent Bank Group Inc (NASDAQ:IBTX), Badger Meter, Inc. (NYSE:BMI), and Chimera Investment Corporation (NYSE:CIM). This group of stocks’ market values are similar to FORM’s market value.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 13.4 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $135 million. That figure was $92 million in FORM’s case. Magellan Health Inc (NASDAQ:MGLN) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Industrias Bachoco, S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE:IBA) is the least popular one with only 3 bullish hedge fund positions. FormFactor, Inc. (NASDAQ:FORM) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for FORM is 75.3. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. Our calculations showed that top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 41.3% in 2019 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 10 percentage points. These stocks gained 30.7% in 2020 through December 14th and still beat the market by 15.8 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on FORM as the stock returned 73% since the end of Q3 (through 12/14) and outperformed the market. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.

Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.