Hedge Funds Are Buying Hardinge Inc. (HDNG)

Before we spend many hours researching a company, we’d like to analyze what hedge funds and billionaire investors think of the stock first. We would like to do so because the elite investors’ consensus returns have been exceptional. The top 30 S&P 500 stocks among hedge funds at the end of September 2014 yielded an average return of 9.5% during the last 12 months ending in October 30. Sixty three percent of these 30 stocks outperformed the market. Although the elite funds occasionally have their duds, such as Micron and Anadarko Petroleum, which fell 50% and 26%, respectively during the same time period, the hedge fund picks seem to work on average. In the following paragraphs, we find out what the billionaire investors and hedge funds think of Hardinge Inc. (NASDAQ:HDNG).

Hardinge has experienced an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds lately. HDNG was in 7 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2015. There were 5 hedge funds in our database with HDNG positions at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of this article we will also compare HDNG to other stocks, including Provectus Biopharmaceuticals Inc (NYSEMKT:PVCT), ArQule, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARQL), and Rentech, Inc. (NYSEAMEX:RTK) to get a better sense of its popularity.

If you’d ask most investors, hedge funds are perceived as unimportant, outdated financial vehicles of years past. While there are greater than 8000 funds in operation at the moment, Our experts choose to focus on the moguls of this group, about 700 funds. These investment experts orchestrate bulk of all hedge funds’ total capital, and by paying attention to their first-class investments, Insider Monkey has discovered several investment strategies that have historically beaten Mr. Market. Insider Monkey’s small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 index by 12 percentage points per year for a decade in their back tests.

Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a gander at the key action encompassing Hardinge Inc. (NASDAQ:HDNG).

What does the smart money think about Hardinge Inc. (NASDAQ:HDNG)?

At the Q3’s end, a total of 7 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 40% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).

Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates has the largest position in Hardinge Inc. (NASDAQ:HDNG), worth close to $9.2 million, corresponding to less than 0.1%% of its total 13F portfolio. On Royce & Associates’s heels is Michael Price’s MFP Investors, with a $2.7 million position; the fund has 0.4% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other professional money managers that are bullish encompass Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies, Peter Algert and Kevin Coldiron’s Algert Coldiron Investors and Gregory Fraser, Rudolph Kluiber, and Timothy Krochuk’s GRT Capital Partners.

Now, specific money managers were breaking ground themselves. Algert Coldiron Investors initiated the biggest position in Hardinge Inc. (NASDAQ:HDNG). Algert Coldiron Investors had $0.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. GRT Capital Partners also initiated a $0.1 million position during the quarter.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Hardinge Inc. (NASDAQ:HDNG) but similarly valued. These stocks are Provectus Biopharmaceuticals Inc (NYSEMKT:PVCT), ArQule, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARQL), Rentech, Inc. (NYSEAMEX:RTK), and Computer Task Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTG). This group of stocks’ market valuations match HDNG’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 9 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $24 million. That figure was $21 million in HDNG’s case. Computer Task Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTG) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Provectus Biopharmaceuticals Inc (NYSEMKT:PVCT) is the least popular one with only 4 bullish hedge fund positions. Hardinge Inc. (NASDAQ:HDNG) 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 CTG might be a better candidate to consider a long position.