Legendary investors such as Leon Cooperman and Seth Klarman earn enormous amounts of money for themselves and their investors by doing in-depth research on small-cap stocks that big brokerage houses don’t publish. Small cap stocks -especially when they are screened well- can generate substantial outperformance versus a boring index fund. That’s why we analyze the activity of those elite funds in these small-cap stocks. In the following paragraphs, we analyze Hooker Furniture Corporation (NASDAQ:HOFT) from the perspective of those elite funds.
Hooker Furniture Corporation (NASDAQ:HOFT) has experienced a decrease in hedge fund interest in recent months. The level and the change in hedge fund popularity aren’t the only variables you need to analyze to decipher hedge funds’ perspectives. A stock may witness a boost in popularity but it may still be less popular than similarly priced stocks. That’s why at the end of this article we will examine companies such as Reis Inc (NASDAQ:REIS), American Science & Engineering, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASEI), and OMNOVA Solutions Inc. (NYSE:OMN) to gather more data points.
Follow Hooker Furnishings Corp (NASDAQ:HOFT)
Follow Hooker Furnishings Corp (NASDAQ:HOFT)
Now, let’s take a glance at the latest action surrounding Hooker Furniture Corporation (NASDAQ:HOFT).
How are hedge funds trading Hooker Furniture Corporation (NASDAQ:HOFT)?
Heading into Q4, a total of 10 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of -17% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes significantly (or already accumulated large positions).
According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates has the largest position in Hooker Furniture Corporation (NASDAQ:HOFT), worth close to $16.8 million, accounting for 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. The second most bullish fund manager is Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, which holds a $6.1 million position; less than 0.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other members of the smart money that hold long positions encompass Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital and Peter Algert and Kevin Coldiron’s Algert Coldiron Investors.
Due to the fact that Hooker Furniture Corporation (NASDAQ:HOFT) has faced bearish sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, we can see that there lies a certain “tier” of money managers who were dropping their full holdings in the third quarter. At the top of the heap, Peter Muller’s PDT Partners dumped the largest stake of the 700 funds followed by Insider Monkey, worth an estimated $0.7 million in stock, and Mike Vranos’s Ellington was right behind this move, as the fund cut about $0.4 million worth. These transactions are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 2 funds in the third quarter.
Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Hooker Furniture Corporation (NASDAQ:HOFT) but similarly valued. These stocks are Reis Inc (NASDAQ:REIS), American Science & Engineering, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASEI), OMNOVA Solutions Inc. (NYSE:OMN), and Oclaro, Inc. (NASDAQ:OCLR). All of these stocks’ market caps are closest to HOFT’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| REIS | 9 | 32097 | 1 |
| ASEI | 9 | 31319 | -2 |
| OMN | 14 | 15768 | 2 |
| OCLR | 15 | 40413 | 2 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 11.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $30 million. That figure was $30 million in HOFT’s case. Oclaro, Inc. (NASDAQ:OCLR) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Reis Inc (NASDAQ:REIS) is the least popular one with only 9 bullish hedge fund positions. Hooker Furniture Corporation (NASDAQ:HOFT) 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 OCLR might be a better candidate to consider a long position.
