Do Hedge Funds Love NV5 Global Inc (NVEE)?

In this article we will check out the progression of hedge fund sentiment towards NV5 Global Inc (NASDAQ:NVEE) and determine whether it is a good investment right now. We at Insider Monkey like to examine what billionaires and hedge funds think of a company before spending days of research on it. Given their 2 and 20 payment structure, hedge funds have more incentives and resources than the average investor. The funds have access to expert networks and get tips from industry insiders. They also employ numerous Ivy League graduates and MBAs. Like everyone else, hedge funds perform miserably at times, but their consensus picks have historically outperformed the market after risk adjustments.

NV5 Global Inc (NASDAQ:NVEE) shares haven’t seen a lot of action during the first quarter. Overall, hedge fund sentiment was unchanged. The stock was in 9 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the first quarter of 2020. At the end of this article we will also compare NVEE to other stocks including ConnectOne Bancorp Inc (NASDAQ:CNOB), Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ:BBBY), and RadNet Inc. (NASDAQ:RDNT) to get a better sense of its popularity.

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

Today there are many metrics market participants use to analyze their stock investments. Some of the less utilized metrics are hedge fund and insider trading interest. We have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best investment managers can beat the market by a superb amount (see the details here).

At Insider Monkey we leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, We take a look at lists like the 10 most profitable companies in the world to identify the compounders that are likely to deliver double digit returns. We interview hedge fund managers and ask them about their best ideas. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. For example we are checking out stocks recommended/scorned by legendary Bill Miller. Our best call in 2020 was shorting the market when the S&P 500 was trading at 3150 in February after realizing the coronavirus pandemic’s significance before most investors. Keeping this in mind we’re going to take a peek at the recent hedge fund action surrounding NV5 Global Inc (NASDAQ:NVEE).

Hedge fund activity in NV5 Global Inc (NASDAQ:NVEE)

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 9 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 0% from the fourth quarter of 2019. By comparison, 10 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in NVEE a year ago. So, let’s find out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

According to Insider Monkey’s hedge fund database, Cruiser Capital Advisors, managed by Keith M. Rosenbloom, holds the biggest position in NV5 Global Inc (NASDAQ:NVEE). Cruiser Capital Advisors has a $2.9 million position in the stock, comprising 3.7% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Royce & Associates, led by Chuck Royce, holding a $2.8 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other hedge funds and institutional investors that hold long positions consist of Charles Paquelet’s Skylands Capital, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Cruiser Capital Advisors allocated the biggest weight to NV5 Global Inc (NASDAQ:NVEE), around 3.68% of its 13F portfolio. Skylands Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, dishing out 0.46 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to NVEE.

Judging by the fact that NV5 Global Inc (NASDAQ:NVEE) has faced falling interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s easy to see that there lies a certain “tier” of funds that decided to sell off their positions entirely last quarter. Interestingly, Richard S. Meisenberg’s ACK Asset Management dropped the largest investment of all the hedgies tracked by Insider Monkey, valued at an estimated $16.5 million in stock. Renaissance Technologies, also cut its stock, about $2.9 million worth. These moves are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to NV5 Global Inc (NASDAQ:NVEE). These stocks are ConnectOne Bancorp Inc (NASDAQ:CNOB), Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ:BBBY), RadNet Inc. (NASDAQ:RDNT), and FinVolution Group (NYSE:FINV). All of these stocks’ market caps resemble NVEE’s market cap.

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As you can see these stocks had an average of 14.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $52 million. That figure was $11 million in NVEE’s case. Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ:BBBY) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand FinVolution Group (NYSE:FINV) is the least popular one with only 4 bullish hedge fund positions. NV5 Global Inc (NASDAQ:NVEE) 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. Our calculations showed that top 10 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 41.4% in 2019 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 10.1 percentage points. These stocks gained 13.4% in 2020 through June 22nd and surpassed the market by 15.9 percentage points. Unfortunately NVEE wasn’t nearly as popular as these 10 stocks (hedge fund sentiment was quite bearish); NVEE investors were disappointed as the stock returned 14.3% during the second quarter and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 10 most popular stocks among hedge funds as most of these stocks already outperformed the market in 2020.

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