How do we determine whether Mantech International Corporation (NASDAQ:MANT) makes for a good investment at the moment? We analyze the sentiment of a select group of the very best investors in the world, who spend immense amounts of time and resources studying companies. They may not always be right (no one is), but data shows that their consensus long positions have historically outperformed the market when we adjust for known risk factors.
Mantech International Corporation (NASDAQ:MANT) has seen an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds of late. Our calculations also showed that MANT isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings and see the video below for Q2 rankings).
Video: Click the image to watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.
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.
John Overdeck of Two Sigma Advisors
We leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example Europe is set to become the world’s largest cannabis market, so we check out this European marijuana stock pitch. One of the most bullish analysts in America just put his money where his mouth is. He says, “I’m investing more today than I did back in early 2009.” So we check out his pitch. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. We also rely on the best performing hedge funds‘ buy/sell signals. Let’s take a gander at the fresh hedge fund action surrounding Mantech International Corporation (NASDAQ:MANT).
What does smart money think about Mantech International Corporation (NASDAQ:MANT)?
At Q3’s end, a total of 14 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 27% from one quarter earlier. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards MANT over the last 17 quarters. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).
More specifically, Millennium Management was the largest shareholder of Mantech International Corporation (NASDAQ:MANT), with a stake worth $7.3 million reported as of the end of September. Trailing Millennium Management was Horizon Asset Management, which amassed a stake valued at $1.8 million. Citadel Investment Group, Two Sigma Advisors, and D E Shaw were also very fond of the stock, becoming one of the largest hedge fund holders of the company. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Quantinno Capital allocated the biggest weight to Mantech International Corporation (NASDAQ:MANT), around 0.41% of its 13F portfolio. Weld Capital Management is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 0.06 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to MANT.
As industrywide interest jumped, key money managers have jumped into Mantech International Corporation (NASDAQ:MANT) headfirst. Tudor Investment Corp, managed by Paul Tudor Jones, established the most outsized position in Mantech International Corporation (NASDAQ:MANT). Tudor Investment Corp had $0.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Minhua Zhang’s Weld Capital Management also made a $0.3 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The only other fund with a new position in the stock is Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management.
Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Mantech International Corporation (NASDAQ:MANT) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Itau CorpBanca (NYSE:ITCB), TerraForm Power Inc (NASDAQ:TERP), Allakos Inc. (NASDAQ:ALLK), and Lancaster Colony Corporation (NASDAQ:LANC). This group of stocks’ market values are similar to MANT’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| ITCB | 1 | 3608 | 0 |
| TERP | 11 | 247376 | -1 |
| ALLK | 16 | 399428 | 8 |
| LANC | 24 | 224423 | 6 |
| Average | 13 | 218709 | 3.25 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 13 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $219 million. That figure was $18 million in MANT’s case. Lancaster Colony Corporation (NASDAQ:LANC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Itau CorpBanca (NYSE:ITCB) is the least popular one with only 1 bullish hedge fund positions. Mantech International Corporation (NASDAQ:MANT) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our calculations showed that top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 37.4% in 2019 through the end of November and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 9.9 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on MANT, though not to the same extent, as the stock returned 8.6% during the first two months of the fourth quarter and outperformed the market as well.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
