We at Insider Monkey have gone over 738 13F filings that hedge funds and famous value investors are required to file by the SEC. The 13F filings show the funds’ and investors’ portfolio positions as of March 31st. In this article we look at what those investors think of Transcat, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRNS).
Is Transcat, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRNS) going to take off soon? The best stock pickers are buying. The number of bullish hedge fund bets improved by 3 in recent months. Our calculations also showed that trns isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.
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 25.8% year to date (through May 30th) and outperformed the market even though it draws its stock picks among small-cap stocks. This strategy also outperformed the market by 40 percentage points since its inception (see the details here). That’s why we believe hedge fund sentiment is a useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.
We’re going to take a peek at the key hedge fund action encompassing Transcat, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRNS).
What does smart money think about Transcat, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRNS)?
Heading into the second quarter of 2019, a total of 9 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 50% from the fourth quarter of 2018. On the other hand, there were a total of 3 hedge funds with a bullish position in TRNS a year ago. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes significantly (or already accumulated large positions).
The largest stake in Transcat, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRNS) was held by Minerva Advisors, which reported holding $9 million worth of stock at the end of March. It was followed by ACK Asset Management with a $5.7 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included Ancora Advisors, Millennium Management, and Cove Street Capital.
Consequently, specific money managers were breaking ground themselves. Minerva Advisors, managed by David P. Cohen, created the most valuable position in Transcat, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRNS). Minerva Advisors had $9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Frederick DiSanto’s Ancora Advisors also made a $5.1 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new TRNS investors: Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Michael Gelband’s ExodusPoint Capital, and Michael Platt and William Reeves’s BlueCrest Capital Mgmt..
Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Transcat, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRNS). We will take a look at TravelCenters of America LLC (NASDAQ:TA), First Financial Northwest, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFNW), Bridgepoint Education Inc (NYSE:BPI), and Pieris Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:PIRS). This group of stocks’ market values match TRNS’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| TA | 9 | 14787 | 2 |
| FFNW | 3 | 12697 | 0 |
| BPI | 15 | 50247 | -3 |
| PIRS | 15 | 37943 | -2 |
| Average | 10.5 | 28919 | -0.75 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 10.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $29 million. That figure was $26 million in TRNS’s case. Bridgepoint Education Inc (NYSE:BPI) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand First Financial Northwest, Inc.(NASDAQ:FFNW) is the least popular one with only 3 bullish hedge fund positions. Transcat, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRNS) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our calculations showed that top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 6.2% in Q2 through June 19th and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by nearly 3 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on TRNS as the stock returned 15.3% during the same time frame and outperformed the market by an even larger margin.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
