Here is What Hedge Funds Think About Alico, Inc. (ALCO)

At Insider Monkey we follow around 730 of the best-performing investors and even though many of them lost money in the last several months, the history teaches us that over the long-run they still manage to beat the market, which is why it can be profitable for us to imitate their activity. Of course, even the best money managers can sometimes get it wrong, but following some of their picks gives us a better chance to outperform the crowd than picking a random stock and this is where our research comes in.

Is Alico, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALCO) a buy here? Prominent investors are in a bullish mood. The number of bullish hedge fund positions went up by 1 recently. ALCO was in an 8 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2015. There were 7 hedge funds in our database with ALCO holdings at the end of the previous quarter. 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 InterNAP Network Services (NASDAQ:INAP), Village Super Market, Inc. (NASDAQ:VLGEA), and Independent Bank Corporation(MI) (NASDAQ:IBCP) to gather more data points.

With all of this in mind, we’re going to analyze the fresh action encompassing Alico, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALCO).

Hedge fund activity in Alico, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALCO)

At Q3’s end, a total of 8 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 14% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings substantially (or already accumulated large positions).

When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, GMT Capital, managed by Thomas E. Claugus, holds the number one position in Alico, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALCO). GMT Capital has a $25.3 million position in the stock, comprising 0.6% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Remy Trafelet of Trafelet Capital, with a $13 million position; the fund has 8.8% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other peers that hold long positions encompass Daniel Beltzman and Gergory Smith’s Birch Run Capital, Martin Whitman’s Third Avenue Management and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies.

As aggregate interest increased, specific money managers have been driving this bullishness. Trafelet Capital, managed by Remy Trafelet, assembled the largest position in Alico, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALCO). Trafelet Capital had $13 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Israel Englander’s Millennium Management also made a $0.3 million investment in the stock during the quarter.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Alico, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALCO). These stocks are InterNAP Network Services (NASDAQ:INAP), Village Super Market, Inc. (NASDAQ:VLGEA), Independent Bank Corporation(MI) (NASDAQ:IBCP), and Paratek Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:PRTK). This group of stocks’ market valuations resemble ALCO’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 9 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $67 million. That figure was $60 million in ALCO’s case. Independent Bank Corporation(MI) (NASDAQ:IBCP) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Village Super Market, Inc. (NASDAQ:VLGEA) is the least popular one with only 6 bullish hedge fund positions. Alico, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALCO) 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 IBCP might be a better candidate to consider a long position.