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 more than 750 13F filings submitted by hedge funds and prominent investors. These filings show these funds’ portfolio positions as of September 30th, 2019. What do these smart investors think about Airgain, Inc. (NASDAQ:AIRG)?
Airgain, Inc. (NASDAQ:AIRG) was in 12 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. AIRG has seen an increase in hedge fund sentiment recently. There were 6 hedge funds in our database with AIRG positions at the end of the previous quarter. Our calculations also showed that AIRG isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings and see the video below for Q2 rankings).
Video: Click the image to watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.
In the financial world there are a large number of tools investors have at their disposal to grade stocks. A pair of the most under-the-radar tools are hedge fund and insider trading indicators. We have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best fund managers can outperform the broader indices by a solid amount. Insider Monkey’s flagship best performing hedge funds strategy returned 91% since May 2014 and outperformed the Russell 2000 ETFs by nearly 40 percentage points. Our short strategy outperformed the S&P 500 short ETFs by 20 percentage points annually (see the details here). That’s why we believe hedge fund sentiment is a useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.
Chuck Royce of Royce & Associates
We leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example Discover is offering this insane cashback card, so we look into shorting the stock. One of the most bullish analysts in America just put his money where his mouth is. He says, “I’m investing more today than I did back in early 2009.” So we check out his pitch. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. We even check out this option genius’ weekly trade ideas. This December we recommended Adams Energy based on an under-the-radar fund manager’s investor letter and the stock gained 20 percent. Let’s review the recent hedge fund action surrounding Airgain, Inc. (NASDAQ:AIRG).
How have hedgies been trading Airgain, Inc. (NASDAQ:AIRG)?
At Q3’s end, a total of 12 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 100% from the second quarter of 2019. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards AIRG over the last 17 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 Airgain, Inc. (NASDAQ:AIRG) was held by Renaissance Technologies, which reported holding $3.7 million worth of stock at the end of September. It was followed by Royce & Associates with a $0.8 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included Trellus Management Company, Winton Capital Management, and Marshall Wace. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Trellus Management Company allocated the biggest weight to Airgain, Inc. (NASDAQ:AIRG), around 0.49% of its 13F portfolio. Navellier & Associates is also relatively very bullish on the stock, designating 0.04 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to AIRG.
With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key money managers have jumped into Airgain, Inc. (NASDAQ:AIRG) headfirst. Winton Capital Management, managed by David Harding, created the most valuable position in Airgain, Inc. (NASDAQ:AIRG). Winton Capital Management had $0.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace also initiated a $0.3 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new AIRG investors: Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, and David E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.
Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Airgain, Inc. (NASDAQ:AIRG) but similarly valued. We will take a look at ATIF Holdings Limited (NASDAQ:ATIF), Medley Management Inc (NYSE:MDLY), AstroNova, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALOT), and EMX Royalty Corporation (NYSE:EMX). This group of stocks’ market valuations match AIRG’s market valuation.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| ATIF | 1 | 69 | 0 |
| MDLY | 3 | 2974 | -2 |
| ALOT | 6 | 14553 | -2 |
| EMX | 2 | 7233 | 0 |
| Average | 3 | 6207 | -1 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 3 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $6 million. That figure was $7 million in AIRG’s case. AstroNova, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALOT) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand ATIF Holdings Limited (NASDAQ:ATIF) is the least popular one with only 1 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Airgain, Inc. (NASDAQ:AIRG) is more popular among hedge funds. Our calculations showed that top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 37.4% in 2019 through the end of November and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 9.9 percentage points. Unfortunately AIRG wasn’t nearly as popular as these 20 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on AIRG were disappointed as the stock returned -19.7% during the first two months of the fourth quarter and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds as 70 percent of these stocks already outperformed the market in Q4.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
