The 700+ hedge funds and famous money managers tracked by Insider Monkey have already compiled and submitted their 13F filings for the third quarter, which unveil their equity positions as of September 30. We went through these filings, fixed typos and other more significant errors and identified the changes in hedge fund portfolios. Our extensive review of these public filings is finally over, so this article is set to reveal the smart money sentiment towards PC Tel Inc (NASDAQ:PCTI).
Is PC Tel Inc (NASDAQ:PCTI) a buy here? The smart money is in an optimistic mood. The number of long hedge fund bets increased by 7 recently. Our calculations also showed that PCTI isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings and see the video below for Q2 rankings). PCTI was in 14 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2019. There were 7 hedge funds in our database with PCTI holdings at the end of the previous quarter.
Video: Click the image to watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.
In the financial world there are tons of signals investors employ to assess their holdings. A duo of the less known signals are hedge fund and insider trading interest. Our researchers have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the top fund managers can trounce the broader indices by a superb margin (see the details here).
Chuck Royce of Royce & Associates
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. 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 also rely on the best performing hedge funds‘ buy/sell signals. Let’s view the fresh hedge fund action surrounding PC Tel Inc (NASDAQ:PCTI).
What have hedge funds been doing with PC Tel Inc (NASDAQ:PCTI)?
Heading into the fourth quarter of 2019, a total of 14 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 100% from the second quarter of 2019. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in PCTI over the last 17 quarters. So, let’s review which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
Among these funds, Renaissance Technologies held the most valuable stake in PC Tel Inc (NASDAQ:PCTI), which was worth $13.2 million at the end of the third quarter. On the second spot was Rutabaga Capital Management which amassed $6.5 million worth of shares. Ariel Investments, Royce & Associates, and Arrowstreet Capital were also very fond of the stock, becoming one of the largest hedge fund holders of the company. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Rutabaga Capital Management allocated the biggest weight to PC Tel Inc (NASDAQ:PCTI), around 2.3% of its 13F portfolio. Algert Coldiron Investors is also relatively very bullish on the stock, designating 0.1 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to PCTI.
Now, some big names were leading the bulls’ herd. Arrowstreet Capital, managed by Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell, created the most valuable position in PC Tel Inc (NASDAQ:PCTI). Arrowstreet Capital had $1.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace also initiated a $1.1 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new PCTI investors: Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors, and Peter Algert and Kevin Coldiron’s Algert Coldiron Investors.
Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to PC Tel Inc (NASDAQ:PCTI). We will take a look at Fulcrum Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:FULC), Kura Sushi USA, Inc. (NASDAQ:KRUS), China Online Education Group (NYSE:COE), and Quarterhill Inc. (NASDAQ:QTRH). This group of stocks’ market values are closest to PCTI’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| FULC | 7 | 16168 | 7 |
| KRUS | 4 | 14698 | 4 |
| COE | 4 | 5109 | 0 |
| QTRH | 3 | 3762 | 0 |
| Average | 4.5 | 9934 | 2.75 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 4.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $10 million. That figure was $30 million in PCTI’s case. Fulcrum Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:FULC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Quarterhill Inc. (NASDAQ:QTRH) is the least popular one with only 3 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks PC Tel Inc (NASDAQ:PCTI) 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 PCTI wasn’t nearly as popular as these 20 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on PCTI were disappointed as the stock returned 3.4% 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.
