The latest 13F reporting period has come and gone, and Insider Monkey is again at the forefront when it comes to making use of this gold mine of data. Insider Monkey finished processing 821 13F filings submitted by hedge funds and prominent investors. These filings show these funds’ portfolio positions as of March 31st, 2020. In this article we are going to take a look at smart money sentiment towards Alta Equipment Group Inc. (NYSE:ALTG).
Is Alta Equipment Group Inc. (NYSE:ALTG) a buy, sell, or hold? Investors who are in the know are turning bullish. The number of bullish hedge fund bets increased by 10 recently. Our calculations also showed that ALTG isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings and see the video for a quick look at the top 5 stocks). ALTG was in 20 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of March. There were 10 hedge funds in our database with ALTG holdings at the end of the previous quarter.
Video: Watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.
In the 21st century investor’s toolkit there are a large number of metrics market participants employ to size up publicly traded companies. A couple of the less utilized metrics are hedge fund and insider trading signals. Our researchers have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top fund managers can outclass their index-focused peers by a solid amount (see the details here).
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. We take a look at lists like the 10 most profitable companies in the world to identify the compounders that are likely to deliver double digit returns. We interview hedge fund managers and ask them about their best ideas. If you want to find out the best healthcare stock to buy right now, you can watch our latest hedge fund manager interview here. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. Our best call in 2020 was shorting the market when the S&P 500 was trading at 3150 after realizing the coronavirus pandemic’s significance before most investors. Keeping this in mind we’re going to take a look at the fresh hedge fund action surrounding Alta Equipment Group Inc. (NYSE:ALTG).
What does smart money think about Alta Equipment Group Inc. (NYSE:ALTG)?
At the end of the first quarter, a total of 20 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 100% from one quarter earlier. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in ALTG over the last 18 quarters. So, let’s examine which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
The largest stake in Alta Equipment Group Inc. (NYSE:ALTG) was held by Nantahala Capital Management, which reported holding $10.3 million worth of stock at the end of September. It was followed by Omni Partners with a $5.6 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included Millennium Management, Wexford Capital, and Portolan Capital Management. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Proxima Capital Management allocated the biggest weight to Alta Equipment Group Inc. (NYSE:ALTG), around 0.94% of its 13F portfolio. AWH Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, dishing out 0.93 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to ALTG.
Now, key money managers have been driving this bullishness. Nantahala Capital Management, managed by Wilmot B. Harkey and Daniel Mack, initiated the most valuable position in Alta Equipment Group Inc. (NYSE:ALTG). Nantahala Capital Management had $10.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Steven Clark’s Omni Partners also initiated a $5.6 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new ALTG positions are Charles Davidson and Joseph Jacobs’s Wexford Capital, George McCabe’s Portolan Capital Management, and Keith M. Rosenbloom’s Cruiser Capital Advisors.
Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Alta Equipment Group Inc. (NYSE:ALTG) but similarly valued. We will take a look at PC Tel Inc (NASDAQ:PCTI), RTI Surgical Inc. (NASDAQ:RTIX), Oxford Square Capital Corp. (NASDAQ:OXSQ), and EyePoint Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:EYPT). This group of stocks’ market values resemble ALTG’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCTI | 11 | 22662 | -7 |
| RTIX | 10 | 11461 | -3 |
| OXSQ | 6 | 2487 | -1 |
| EYPT | 3 | 812 | 1 |
| Average | 7.5 | 9356 | -2.5 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 7.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $9 million. That figure was $23 million in ALTG’s case. PC Tel Inc (NASDAQ:PCTI) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand EyePoint Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:EYPT) is the least popular one with only 3 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Alta Equipment Group Inc. (NYSE:ALTG) is more popular among hedge funds. Our calculations showed that top 10 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 41.4% in 2019 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 10.1 percentage points. These stocks returned 12.2% in 2020 through June 17th but still managed to beat the market by 14.8 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on ALTG as the stock returned 88.3% so far in Q2 (through June 17th) and outperformed the market by an even larger margin. Hedge funds were clearly right about piling into this stock relative to other stocks with similar market capitalizations.
Follow Alta Equipment Group Inc. (NYSE:ALTG)
Follow Alta Equipment Group Inc. (NYSE:ALTG)
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
