World-class money managers like Bill Ackman and Barry Rosenstein only invest their wealthy clients’ money after undertaking a rigorous examination of any potential stock. They are particularly successful in this regard when it comes to small-cap stocks, which their peerless research gives them a big information advantage on, when it comes to judging their worth. It’s not surprising then that they generate their biggest returns from these stocks and invest more of their money in these stocks on average than other investors. It’s also not surprising then that we pay close attention to these picks ourselves and have built a market-beating investment strategy around them.
Hedge fund interest in Kandi Technolgies Corp. (NASDAQ:KNDI) remained unchanged in the third quarter. This is usually a negative indicator. At the end of this article we will also compare KNDI to other stocks, including Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:NGS), Immune Desing Corp (NASDAQ:IMDZ), and Exactech, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXAC) to get a better sense of its popularity.
Follow Kandi Technologies Group Inc. (NASDAQ:KNDI)
Follow Kandi Technologies Group Inc. (NASDAQ:KNDI)
In the 21st century investor’s toolkit there are plenty of tools investors put to use to assess publicly traded companies. A duo of the most underrated tools are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. We have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best money managers can outpace the broader indices by a significant margin (see the details here).
With all of this in mind, we’re going to check out the new action surrounding Kandi Technolgies Corp. (NASDAQ:KNDI).
Hedge fund activity in Kandi Technolgies Corp. (NASDAQ:KNDI)
Heading into Q4, a total of 4 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, unchanged from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings significantly (or already accumulated large positions).
Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group has the number one ‘Call’ position in Kandi Technolgies Corp. (NASDAQ:KNDI), worth close to $0.5 million, comprising less than 0.1%% of its total 13F portfolio. On Citadel Investment Group’s heels is Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, which holds a $0.2 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining hedge funds and institutional investors that hold long positions comprise Ben Levine, Andrew Manuel and Stefan Renold’s LMR Partners, D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.
At the same time, there was a specific group of funds who were dropping their full holdings in KNDI by the end of the third quarter. At the top of the heap, John Fichthorn’s Dialectic Capital Management dumped the biggest investment of the 700 funds watched by Insider Monkey, valued at close to $0.5 million in stock, and Peter Muller’s PDT Partners was right behind this move, as the fund cut about $0.2 million worth of shares.
Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Kandi Technolgies Corp. (NASDAQ:KNDI) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:NGS), Immune Desing Corp (NASDAQ:IMDZ), Exactech, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXAC), and Life Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:LIFE). This group of stocks’ market values resemble KNDI’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| NGS | 9 | 34127 | 0 |
| IMDZ | 6 | 16490 | 0 |
| EXAC | 12 | 28400 | 2 |
| LIFE | 7 | 46839 | -1 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 9 hedge funds with long positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $31 million, significantly above the $1 million figure in KNDI’s case. Exactech, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXAC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand, Immune Desing Corp (NASDAQ:IMDZ) is the least popular one with only 6 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Kandi Technolgies Corp. (NASDAQ:KNDI) is even less popular than IMDZ. Considering that hedge funds aren’t fond of this stock in relation to other companies analyzed in this article, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and understand why the smart money isn’t behind this stock. This isn’t necessarily bad news. Although it is possible that hedge funds may think the stock is overpriced and view the stock as a short candidate, they may not be very familiar with the bullish thesis. In either case more research is warranted.
