Here is What Hedge Funds Think About Checkpoint Systems, Inc. (CKP)

Hedge funds and other investment firms run by legendary investors like Israel Englander and Ray Dalio are entrusted to manage billions of dollars of accredited investors’ money because they are without peer in the resources they use to identify the best investments for their chosen investment horizon. Moreover, they are more willing to invest a greater amount of their resources in small-cap stocks than big brokerage houses, and this is often where they generate their outperformance, which is why we pay particular attention to their best ideas in this space.

Is Checkpoint Systems, Inc. (NYSE:CKP) an excellent investment today? Money managers are in a pessimistic mood. The number of long hedge fund bets retreated by 2 recently. At the end of this article we will also compare CKP to other stocks, including Carbonite Inc (NASDAQ:CARB), Park Sterling Corp (NASDAQ:PSTB), and Axcelis Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:ACLS) to get a better sense of its popularity.

In the eyes of most traders, hedge funds are assumed to be slow, outdated financial vehicles of the past. While there are greater than 8000 funds in operation today, Our experts hone in on the masters of this group, about 700 funds. These investment experts oversee most of all hedge funds’ total capital, and by shadowing their finest equity investments, Insider Monkey has spotted numerous investment strategies that have historically outstripped the S&P 500 index. Insider Monkey’s small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 index by 12 percentage points per year for a decade in their back tests.

Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a look at the key action encompassing Checkpoint Systems, Inc. (NYSE:CKP).

How are hedge funds trading Checkpoint Systems, Inc. (NYSE:CKP)?

Heading into Q4, a total of 15 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of -12% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).

When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the number one position in Checkpoint Systems, Inc. (NYSE:CKP). Royce & Associates has a $10.2 million position in the stock, comprising 0.1% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies, with a $5.9 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining hedge funds and institutional investors that are bullish consist of Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.

Seeing as Checkpoint Systems, Inc. (NYSE:CKP) has faced declining sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s easy to see that there is a sect of hedge funds who sold off their entire stakes in the third quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Jim Chanos’ Kynikos sold off the largest position of the 700 funds monitored by Insider Monkey, valued at about $6.7 million in stock. Matthew Drapkin and Steven R. Becker’s fund, Becker Drapkin Management, also dropped its stock, about $0.6 million worth. These moves are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 2 funds in the third quarter.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Checkpoint Systems, Inc. (NYSE:CKP). These stocks are Carbonite Inc (NASDAQ:CARB), Park Sterling Corp (NASDAQ:PSTB), Axcelis Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:ACLS), and Monarch Casino & Resort, Inc. (NASDAQ:MCRI). This group of stocks’ market values match CKP’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 15 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $47 million. That figure was $27 million in CKP’s case. Axcelis Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:ACLS) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Monarch Casino & Resort, Inc. (NASDAQ:MCRI) is the least popular one with only 8 bullish hedge fund positions. Checkpoint Systems, Inc. (NYSE:CKP) is not the least popular stock in this group, but hedge fund interest is close to the 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 ACLS might be a better candidate to consider a long position.