Here Is What Hedge Funds Think of World Acceptance Corp. (WRLD)

Is World Acceptance Corp. (NASDAQ:WRLD) a good investment right now? We check hedge fund and billionaire investor sentiment before delving into hours of research. Hedge funds spend millions of dollars on Ivy League graduates, expert networks, and get tips from industry insiders. They fail miserably sometimes but historically their consensus stock picks outperformed the market after adjusting for known risk factors.

Is World Acceptance Corp. (NASDAQ:WRLD) worth your attention right now? Money managers are getting less optimistic. The number of long hedge fund bets were trimmed by 1 recently. At the end of this article we will also compare WRLD to other stocks including Viate Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:VTAE), Aquinox Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:AQXP), and Ares Dynamic Credit Allocation Fund Inc (NYSE:ARDC) to get a better sense of its popularity.

Keeping this in mind, let’s take a peek at the key action surrounding World Acceptance Corp. (NASDAQ:WRLD).

What does the smart money think about World Acceptance Corp. (NASDAQ:WRLD)?

At Q3’s end, a total of 17 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of -6% from the second quarter. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).

When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Edward Goodnow’s Goodnow Investment Group has the number one position in World Acceptance Corp. (NASDAQ:WRLD), worth close to $16.8 million, amounting to 3.2% of its total 13F portfolio. On Goodnow Investment Group’s heels is Arrowstreet Capital, led by Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell, holding a $6.6 million position; less than 0.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other hedge funds and institutional investors that are bullish consist of Christopher R. Hansen’s Valiant Capital, Ari Zweiman’s 683 Capital Partners and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.

Judging by the fact that World Acceptance Corp. (NASDAQ:WRLD) has witnessed declining sentiment from hedge fund managers, it’s easy to see that there exists a select few fund managers that slashed their full holdings last quarter. Interestingly, Wilmot B. Harkey and Daniel Mack’s Nantahala Capital Management said goodbye to the biggest position of all the hedgies watched by Insider Monkey, worth an estimated $7.5 million in stock. Nathaniel August’s fund, Mangrove Partners, also said goodbye to its stock, about $5.7 million worth. These transactions are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 1 funds last quarter.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to World Acceptance Corp. (NASDAQ:WRLD). We will take a look at Viate Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:VTAE), Aquinox Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:AQXP), Ares Dynamic Credit Allocation Fund Inc (NYSE:ARDC), and McEwen Mining Inc (NYSE:MUX). This group of stocks’ market caps match WRLD’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 9.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $61 million. That figure was $48 million in WRLD’s case. Viate Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:VTAE) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Ares Dynamic Credit Allocation Fund Inc (NYSE:ARDC) is the least popular one with only 4 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks World Acceptance Corp. (NASDAQ:WRLD) is more popular among hedge funds. Considering that hedge funds are fond of this stock in relation to its market cap peers, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and potentially include it in your portfolio.