The latest 13F reporting period has come and gone, and Insider Monkey is again at the forefront when it comes to making use of this gold mine of data. We have processed the filings of the more than 700 world-class investment firms that we track and now have access to the collective wisdom contained in these filings, which are based on their September 30 holdings, data that is available nowhere else. Should you consider InfuSystem Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:INFU) for your portfolio? We’ll look to this invaluable collective wisdom for the answer.
Hedge fund interest in InfuSystem Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:INFU) shares was flat at the end of last quarter. This is usually a negative indicator. At the end of this article we will also compare INFU to other stocks including Everspin Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRAM), Plumas Bancorp (NASDAQ:PLBC), and Asure Software Inc (NASDAQ:ASUR) to get a better sense of its popularity.
In the financial world there are a large number of tools investors have at their disposal to grade stocks. A pair of the most under-the-radar tools are hedge fund and insider trading indicators. We have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best fund managers can outperform the broader indices by a solid amount. Insider Monkey’s flagship best performing hedge funds strategy returned 91% since May 2014 and outperformed the Russell 2000 ETFs by nearly 40 percentage points. Our short strategy outperformed the S&P 500 short ETFs by 20 percentage points annually (see the details here). That’s why we believe hedge fund sentiment is a useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.
Mario Gabelli of GAMCO Investors
Unlike the largest US hedge funds that are convinced Dow will soar past 40,000 or the world’s most bearish hedge fund that’s more convinced than ever that a crash is coming, our long-short investment strategy doesn’t rely on bull or bear markets to deliver double digit returns. We only rely on the best performing hedge funds‘ buy/sell signals. Let’s review the latest hedge fund action regarding InfuSystem Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:INFU).
How have hedgies been trading InfuSystem Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:INFU)?
Heading into the fourth quarter of 2019, a total of 3 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 0% from the second quarter of 2019. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in INFU over the last 17 quarters. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were adding to their stakes substantially (or already accumulated large positions).
When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Minerva Advisors, managed by David P. Cohen, holds the most valuable position in InfuSystem Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:INFU). Minerva Advisors has a $11.3 million position in the stock, comprising 6.3% of its 13F portfolio. The second most bullish fund manager is Renaissance Technologies, holding a $1.8 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Minerva Advisors allocated the biggest weight to InfuSystem Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:INFU), around 6.26% of its portfolio. GAMCO Investors is also relatively very bullish on the stock, designating 0.0038 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to INFU.
Earlier we told you that the aggregate hedge fund interest in the stock was unchanged and we view this as a negative development. Even though there weren’t any hedge funds dumping their holdings during the third quarter, there weren’t any hedge funds initiating brand new positions. This indicates that hedge funds, at the very best, perceive this stock as dead money and they haven’t identified any viable catalysts that can attract investor attention.
Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to InfuSystem Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:INFU). We will take a look at Everspin Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRAM), Plumas Bancorp (NASDAQ:PLBC), Asure Software Inc (NASDAQ:ASUR), and Infrastructure and Energy Alternatives, Inc. (NASDAQ:IEA). This group of stocks’ market valuations match INFU’s market valuation.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| MRAM | 5 | 7344 | 1 |
| PLBC | 1 | 234 | 0 |
| ASUR | 5 | 9039 | -2 |
| IEA | 7 | 7296 | 0 |
| Average | 4.5 | 5978 | -0.25 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 4.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $6 million. That figure was $13 million in INFU’s case. Infrastructure and Energy Alternatives, Inc. (NASDAQ:IEA) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Plumas Bancorp (NASDAQ:PLBC) is the least popular one with only 1 bullish hedge fund positions. InfuSystem Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:INFU) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our calculations showed that top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 34.7% in 2019 through November 22nd and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 8.5 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on INFU as the stock returned 47.1% during Q4 (through 11/22) and outperformed the market by an even larger margin.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
