Hedge Funds Are Snapping Up UFP Technologies, Inc. (UFPT)

The Insider Monkey team has completed processing the quarterly 13F filings for the June quarter submitted by the hedge funds and other money managers included in our extensive database. Most hedge fund investors experienced strong gains on the back of a strong market performance, which certainly propelled them to adjust their equity holdings so as to maintain the desired risk profile. As a result, the relevancy of these public filings and their content is indisputable, as they may reveal numerous high-potential stocks. The following article will discuss the smart money sentiment towards UFP Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:UFPT).

Is UFP Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:UFPT) a marvelous investment today? Prominent investors were getting more bullish. The number of bullish hedge fund positions inched up by 2 recently. UFP Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:UFPT) was in 10 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the second quarter of 2021. The all time high for this statistic is 11. Our calculations also showed that UFPT isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q2 rankings).

If you’d ask most shareholders, hedge funds are viewed as slow, outdated investment vehicles of the past. While there are more than 8000 funds with their doors open at the moment, Our researchers hone in on the elite of this club, around 850 funds. These investment experts shepherd the majority of all hedge funds’ total capital, and by monitoring their inimitable investments, Insider Monkey has brought to light various investment strategies that have historically beaten the market. Insider Monkey’s flagship short hedge fund strategy defeated the S&P 500 short ETFs by around 20 percentage points annually since its inception in March 2017. Also, our monthly newsletter’s portfolio of long stock picks returned 185.4% since March 2017 (through August 2021) and beat the S&P 500 Index by more than 79 percentage points. You can download a sample issue of this newsletter on our website.

Jeffrey Bronchick of Cove Street Capital

At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, lithium mining is one of the fastest growing industries right now, so we are checking out stock pitches like this emerging lithium stock. We go through lists like the 10 best EV stocks to pick the next Tesla that will deliver a 10x return. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. You can subscribe to our free daily newsletter on our homepage. Now let’s review the fresh hedge fund action regarding UFP Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:UFPT).

Do Hedge Funds Think UFPT Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?

At Q2’s end, a total of 10 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 25% from one quarter earlier. On the other hand, there were a total of 7 hedge funds with a bullish position in UFPT a year ago. So, let’s review which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

The largest stake in UFP Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:UFPT) was held by Renaissance Technologies, which reported holding $27 million worth of stock at the end of June. It was followed by Cove Street Capital with a $11.3 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included AltraVue Capital, Royce & Associates, and Diamond Hill Capital. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position AltraVue Capital allocated the biggest weight to UFP Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:UFPT), around 2.41% of its 13F portfolio. Roubaix Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, dishing out 1.99 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to UFPT.

As aggregate interest increased, key money managers were breaking ground themselves. Diamond Hill Capital, managed by Matthew Stadelman, assembled the largest position in UFP Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:UFPT). Diamond Hill Capital had $3.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Israel Englander’s Millennium Management also made a $0.2 million investment in the stock during the quarter.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as UFP Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:UFPT) but similarly valued. We will take a look at U.S. Xpress Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:USX), Athenex, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATNX), Moxian (BVI) Inc (NASDAQ:MOXC), Express, Inc. (NYSE:EXPR), D8 Holdings Corp. (NYSE:DEH), Alta Equipment Group Inc. (NYSE:ALTG), and Bar Harbor Bankshares (NYSE:BHB). This group of stocks’ market values are closest to UFPT’s market value.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 12.1 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $65 million. That figure was $59 million in UFPT’s case. D8 Holdings Corp. (NYSE:DEH) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Moxian (BVI) Inc (NASDAQ:MOXC) is the least popular one with only 2 bullish hedge fund positions. UFP Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:UFPT) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for UFPT is 46.4. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. Our calculations showed that top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 95.8% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 40 percentage points. These stocks gained 25.7% in 2021 through September 27th and still beat the market by 6.2 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on UFPT as the stock returned 8.4% since the end of the second quarter (through 9/27) and outperformed the market by an even larger margin.

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