Here is What Hedge Funds Think About ATN International Inc (ATNI)

Billionaire hedge fund managers such as Steve Cohen and Stan Druckenmiller can generate millions or even billions of dollars every year by pinning down high-potential small-cap stocks and pouring cash into these candidates. Small-cap stocks are overlooked by most investors, brokerage houses, and financial services hubs, while the unlimited research abilities of the big players within the hedge fund industry can easily identify the undervalued and high-potential stocks that reside the ignored corners of equity markets. There are numerous small-cap stocks that have turned out to be great winners, which is one of the main reasons the Insider Monkey team pays close attention to the hedge fund activity in relation to these stocks.

ATN International Inc (NASDAQ:ATNI) shareholders have witnessed an increase in hedge fund sentiment in recent months. ATNI was in 10 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2016. There were 9 hedge funds in our database with ATNI holdings at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of this article we will also compare ATNI to other stocks including Callidus Software Inc. (NASDAQ:CALD), Gran Tierra Energy Inc. (NYSEAMEX:GTE), and Mimecast Ltd (NASDAQ:MIME) to get a better sense of its popularity.

At Insider Monkey, we’ve developed an investment strategy that has delivered market-beating returns over the past 12 months. Our strategy identifies the 100 best-performing funds of the previous quarter from among the collection of 700+ successful funds that we track in our database, which we accomplish using our returns methodology. We then study the portfolios of those 100 funds using the latest 13F data to uncover the 30 most popular mid-cap stocks (market caps of between $1 billion and $10 billion) among them to hold until the next filing period. This strategy delivered 18% gains over the past 12 months, more than doubling the 8% returns enjoyed by the S&P 500 ETFs.

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Now, we’re going to go over the latest action regarding ATN International Inc (NASDAQ:ATNI).

What does the smart money think about ATN International Inc (NASDAQ:ATNI)?

At the end of the third quarter, a total of 10 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, an increase of 11% from the previous quarter. On the other hand, there were a total of 7 hedge funds with a bullish position in ATNI at the beginning of this year. So, let’s check out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Renaissance Technologies, one of the biggest hedge funds in the world, holds the largest position in ATN International Inc (NASDAQ:ATNI). According to regulatory filings, the fund has a $26.3 million position in the stock, comprising less than 0.1% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Royce & Associates, led by Chuck Royce, which holds a $13.6 million position; 0.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other peers with similar optimism encompass Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management. We should note that none of these hedge funds are among our list of the 100 best performing hedge funds which is based on the performance of their 13F long positions in non-microcap stocks.

Consequently, key hedge funds have been driving this bullishness. Pine River Capital Management, led by Brian Taylor, assembled the biggest position in ATN International Inc (NASDAQ:ATNI). According to its latest 13F filing, the fund had $0.7 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group also initiated a $0.6 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new ATNI positions are Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management and Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to ATN International Inc (NASDAQ:ATNI). We will take a look at Callidus Software Inc. (NASDAQ:CALD), Gran Tierra Energy Inc. (NYSEAMEX:GTE), Mimecast Ltd (NASDAQ:MIME), and Diodes Incorporated (NASDAQ:DIOD). This group of stocks’ market values are closest to ATNI’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 16 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $128 million. That figure was $48 million in ATNI’s case. Gran Tierra Energy Inc. (NYSEAMEX:GTE) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Diodes Incorporated (NASDAQ:DIOD) is the least popular one with only 8 bullish hedge fund positions. ATN International Inc (NASDAQ:ATNI) 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 GTE might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: none.