Do Hedge Funds Love Control4 Corp (CTRL)?

After several tireless days we have finished crunching the numbers from the more than 700 13F filings issued by the elite hedge funds and other investment firms that we track at Insider Monkey, which disclosed those firms’ equity portfolios as of September 30. The results of that effort will be put on display in this article, as we share valuable insight into the smart money sentiment towards Control4 Corp (NASDAQ:CTRL).

Control4 Corp (NASDAQ:CTRL) has seen a decrease in support from the world’s most elite money managers of late. CTRL was in 6 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2015. There were 7 hedge funds in our database with CTRL positions at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of this article we will also compare CTRL to other stocks including Mattersight Corporation (NASDAQ:MATR), Alliance One International, Inc. (NYSE:AOI), and Great Ajax Corp (NYSE:AJX) to get a better sense of its popularity.

If you’d ask most stock holders, hedge funds are perceived as worthless, old financial vehicles of yesteryear. While there are over 8000 funds in operation at the moment, Our experts choose to focus on the masters of this club, about 700 funds. These hedge fund managers handle the majority of all hedge funds’ total capital, and by following their inimitable investments, Insider Monkey has spotted many investment strategies that have historically defeated the market. Insider Monkey’s small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed the S&P 500 index by 12 percentage points annually for a decade in their back tests.

Now, let’s take a look at the key action surrounding Control4 Corp (NASDAQ:CTRL).

What have hedge funds been doing with Control4 Corp (NASDAQ:CTRL)?

Heading into Q4, a total of 6 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of -14% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes significantly (or already accumulated large positions).

According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Crispin Odey’s Odey Asset Management Group has the biggest position in Control4 Corp (NASDAQ:CTRL), worth close to $11.3 million, amounting to 0.9% of its total 13F portfolio. On Odey Asset Management Group’s heels is P2 Capital Partners, led by Claus Moller, holding a $9.4 million position; 1.8% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other professional money managers that hold long positions contain Charles Paquelet’s Skylands Capital, Joseph Mathias’s Concourse Capital Management and Mark Coe’s Coe Capital Management.

Judging by the fact that Control4 Corp (NASDAQ:CTRL) has faced falling interest from hedge fund managers, logic holds that there was a specific group of money managers that elected to cut their full holdings by the end of the third quarter. Intriguingly, David S. Winter and David J. Millstone’s 40 North Management sold off the biggest investment of all the hedgies watched by Insider Monkey, totaling about $0.9 million in stock, and D E Shaw was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $0.2 million worth. These moves are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 1 funds by the end of the third quarter.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Control4 Corp (NASDAQ:CTRL) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Mattersight Corporation (NASDAQ:MATR), Alliance One International, Inc. (NYSE:AOI), Great Ajax Corp (NYSE:AJX), and Marlin Business Services Corp. (NASDAQ:MRLN). This group of stocks’ market values resemble CTRL’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 6.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $32 million. That figure was $25 million in CTRL’s case. Alliance One International, Inc. (NYSE:AOI) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Mattersight Corporation (NASDAQ:MATR) is the least popular one with only 5 bullish hedge fund positions. Control4 Corp (NASDAQ:CTRL) 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 AOI might be a better candidate to consider a long position.