Hedge Funds Are Dumping Omnicell, Inc. (OMCL)

How do we determine whether Omnicell, Inc. (NASDAQ:OMCL) 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.

Is Omnicell, Inc. (NASDAQ:OMCL) going to take off soon? Money managers are selling. The number of long hedge fund positions has gone down by 2 lately. At the end of this article we will also compare OMCL to other stocks including The Navigators Group, Inc (NASDAQ:NAVG), Vivint Solar Inc (NYSE:VSLR), and Weis Markets, Inc. (NYSE:WMK) to get a better sense of its popularity.

At the moment there are several indicators, market participants have at their disposal to analyze publicly traded companies. Two of the best indicators are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. Hedge fund experts at Insider Monkey have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top fund managers can outclass their index-focused peers by a very impressive amount (see the details here).

Now, let’s take a look at the key action regarding Omnicell, Inc. (NASDAQ:OMCL).

How are hedge funds trading Omnicell, Inc. (NASDAQ:OMCL)?

At the Q3’s end, a total of 16 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish in this stock, a change of -11% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes considerably.

According to publicly available hedge fund holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management had the biggest position in Omnicell, Inc. (NASDAQ:OMCL), worth close to $17.2 million, comprising less than 0.1%% of its total 13F portfolio. On Fisher Asset Management’s heels is Renaissance Technologies, led by Jim Simons, holding a $8.2 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining peers that are bullish consist of Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital, Brian C. Freckmann’s Lyon Street Capital and Adam Wright and Gary Kohler’s Blue Clay Capital.

Because Omnicell, Inc. (NASDAQ:OMCL) has experienced a declination in interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, we can see that there exists a select few hedgies that slashed their entire stakes heading into Q4. It’s worth mentioning that Neil Chriss’s Hutchin Hill Capital dumped the biggest position of the “upper crust” of funds tracked by Insider Monkey, worth about $0.9 million in stock, and Matthew Tewksbury of Stevens Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $0.6 million worth. These transactions are interesting, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 2 funds heading into Q4.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Omnicell, Inc. (NASDAQ:OMCL). These stocks are The Navigators Group, Inc (NASDAQ:NAVG), Vivint Solar Inc (NYSE:VSLR), Weis Markets, Inc. (NYSE:WMK), and Universal Corp (NYSE:UVV). This group of stocks’ market values resemble OMCL’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 12 hedge funds with long positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $102 million. The Navigators Group, Inc (NASDAQ:NAVG) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Weis Markets, Inc. (NYSE:WMK) is the least popular one with only 11 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Omnicell, Inc. (NASDAQ:OMCL), smart money is more bullish on Omnicell, but they amassed just $44.35 million worth of stock, which is less than in the other companies’ case. With this in mind, Omnicell is a stock that deserves your attention, but a more detailed analysis is required in order to get a better idea about its potential.