We at Insider Monkey have gone over 738 13F filings that hedge funds and prominent investors are required to file by the SEC The 13F filings show the funds’ and investors’ portfolio positions as of March 31st. In this article, we look at what those funds think of Flotek Industries Inc (NYSE:FTK) based on that data.
Flotek Industries Inc (NYSE:FTK) investors should be aware of an increase in hedge fund sentiment lately. Our calculations also showed that FTK isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.
If you’d ask most stock holders, hedge funds are assumed to be worthless, outdated financial tools of years past. While there are more than 8000 funds in operation at present, Our experts hone in on the masters of this club, approximately 750 funds. These investment experts oversee bulk of the hedge fund industry’s total asset base, and by shadowing their matchless investments, Insider Monkey has determined a few investment strategies that have historically outrun the market. Insider Monkey’s flagship hedge fund strategy outpaced the S&P 500 index by around 5 percentage points annually since its inception in May 2014 through June 18th. We were able to generate large returns even by identifying short candidates. Our portfolio of short stocks lost 28.2% since February 2017 (through June 18th) even though the market was up nearly 30% during the same period. We just shared a list of 5 short targets in our latest quarterly update and they are already down an average of 8.2% in a month whereas our long picks outperformed the market by 2.5 percentage points in this volatile 5 week period (our long picks also beat the market by 15 percentage points so far this year).
We’re going to take a look at the new hedge fund action surrounding Flotek Industries Inc (NYSE:FTK).
What have hedge funds been doing with Flotek Industries Inc (NYSE:FTK)?
At Q1’s end, a total of 10 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 11% from one quarter earlier. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards FTK over the last 15 quarters. So, let’s see which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
More specifically, D E Shaw was the largest shareholder of Flotek Industries Inc (NYSE:FTK), with a stake worth $7.2 million reported as of the end of March. Trailing D E Shaw was Rutabaga Capital Management, which amassed a stake valued at $6 million. Fondren Management, Millennium Management, and Peconic Partners LLC were also very fond of the stock, giving the stock large weights in their portfolios.
Now, some big names have been driving this bullishness. Fondren Management, managed by Bradley Louis Radoff, initiated the largest position in Flotek Industries Inc (NYSE:FTK). Fondren Management had $5.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Matthew Drapkin and Steven R. Becker’s Becker Drapkin Management also initiated a $1.8 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new FTK investors: David P. Cohen’s Minerva Advisors, David Harding’s Winton Capital Management, and Frederick DiSanto’s Ancora Advisors.
Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Flotek Industries Inc (NYSE:FTK). We will take a look at EverQuote, Inc. (NASDAQ:EVER), Charah Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:CHRA), Smart Sand, Inc. (NASDAQ:SND), and Menlo Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:MNLO). This group of stocks’ market values are similar to FTK’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| EVER | 10 | 10994 | 3 |
| CHRA | 3 | 11223 | -1 |
| SND | 6 | 4100 | 1 |
| MNLO | 9 | 69374 | 2 |
| Average | 7 | 23923 | 1.25 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 7 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $24 million. That figure was $27 million in FTK’s case. EverQuote, Inc. (NASDAQ:EVER) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Charah Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:CHRA) is the least popular one with only 3 bullish hedge fund positions. Flotek Industries Inc (NYSE:FTK) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our calculations showed that top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 6.2% in Q2 through June 19th and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by nearly 3 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on FTK as the stock returned 13.6% during the same period and outperformed the market by an even larger margin. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
