Here is What Hedge Funds Think About Perficient, Inc. (PRFT)

In this article we will analyze whether Perficient, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRFT) is a good investment right now by following the lead of some of the best investors in the world and piggybacking their ideas. There’s no better way to get these firms’ immense resources and analytical capabilities working for us than to follow their lead into their best ideas. While not all of these picks will be winners, our research shows that these picks historically outperformed the market by double digits annually.

Perficient, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRFT) was in 22 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of March. The all time high for this statistic is 23. PRFT shareholders have witnessed an increase in enthusiasm from smart money in recent months. There were 20 hedge funds in our database with PRFT positions at the end of the fourth quarter. Our calculations also showed that PRFT isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings).

Why do we pay any attention at all to hedge fund sentiment? Our research has shown that a select group of hedge fund holdings outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by 115 percentage points since March 2017 (see the details here). That’s why we believe hedge fund sentiment is an extremely useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.

Matthew Hulsizer of PEAK6 Capital

At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, Chuck Schumer recently stated that marijuana legalization will be a Senate priority. So, we are checking out this under the radar stock that will benefit from this. We go through lists like the 10 best battery stocks to pick the next Tesla that will deliver a 10x return. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. You can subscribe to our free daily newsletter on our homepage. Keeping this in mind we’re going to review the new hedge fund action surrounding Perficient, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRFT).

Do Hedge Funds Think PRFT Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?

At Q1’s end, a total of 22 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 10% from the previous quarter. By comparison, 21 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in PRFT a year ago. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings substantially (or already accumulated large positions).

Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Ben Gordon’s Blue Grotto Capital has the largest position in Perficient, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRFT), worth close to $27 million, amounting to 10% of its total 13F portfolio. On Blue Grotto Capital’s heels is Intrinsic Edge Capital, managed by Mark Coe, which holds a $13.2 million position; 0.9% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other peers that are bullish comprise Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and McKinley Capital Management. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Blue Grotto Capital allocated the biggest weight to Perficient, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRFT), around 9.96% of its 13F portfolio. Intrinsic Edge Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, setting aside 0.9 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to PRFT.

As industrywide interest jumped, some big names were breaking ground themselves. Arrowstreet Capital, managed by Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell, initiated the most valuable position in Perficient, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRFT). Arrowstreet Capital had $4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw also initiated a $2.7 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new PRFT investors: Renaissance Technologies, Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management, and Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Perficient, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRFT) but similarly valued. These stocks are Knowles Corp (NYSE:KN), Equinox Gold Corp. (NYSE:EQX), Hostess Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ:TWNK), Sumo Logic, Inc. (NASDAQ:SUMO), The Macerich Company (NYSE:MAC), Enviva Partners, LP (NYSE:EVA), and Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc (NYSE:INO). This group of stocks’ market values match PRFT’s market value.

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As you can see these stocks had an average of 16.9 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $187 million. That figure was $98 million in PRFT’s case. Hostess Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ:TWNK) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Enviva Partners, LP (NYSE:EVA) is the least popular one with only 7 bullish hedge fund positions. Perficient, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRFT) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for PRFT is 63.5. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. Our calculations showed that top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 95.8% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 40 percentage points. These stocks gained 23.8% in 2021 through July 16th and still beat the market by 7.7 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on PRFT as the stock returned 41% since the end of Q1 (through 7/16) and outperformed the market. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.

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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.

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