The Insider Monkey team has completed processing the quarterly 13F filings for the September quarter submitted by the hedge funds and other money managers included in our extensive database. Most hedge funds have been producing disappointing net returns in recent years, however that was partly due to the poor performance of small-cap stocks in general. Well, small-cap stocks finally turned the corner and have been beating the large-cap stocks by more than 10 percentage points over the last 5 months.This means the relevancy of hedge funds’ public filings became inarguable, as they may reveal numerous high-potential stocks. The following article will discuss the smart money sentiment towards Attunity Ltd (NASDAQ:ATTU).
Attunity Ltd (NASDAQ:ATTU) has seen a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money of late. There were 7 hedge funds in our database with ATTU holdings at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of this article we will also compare ATTU to other stocks including Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:AUPH), Gridsum Holding Inc – ADR (NASDAQ:GSUM), and QLT Inc. (USA) (NASDAQ:QLTI) to get a better sense of its popularity.
At Insider Monkey, we’ve developed an investment strategy that has delivered market-beating returns over the past 12 months. Our strategy identifies the 100 best-performing funds of the previous quarter from among the collection of 700+ successful funds that we track in our database, which we accomplish using our returns methodology. We then study the portfolios of those 100 funds using the latest 13F data to uncover the 30 most popular mid-cap stocks (market caps of between $1 billion and $10 billion) among them to hold until the next filing period. This strategy delivered 18% gains over the past 12 months, more than doubling the 8% returns enjoyed by the S&P 500 ETFs.
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With all of this in mind, let’s analyze the key action regarding Attunity Ltd (NASDAQ:ATTU).
Hedge fund activity in Attunity Ltd (NASDAQ:ATTU)
At the end of the third quarter, a total of 6 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a drop of 14% from the previous quarter. On the other hand, there were a total of 9 hedge funds with a bullish position in ATTU at the beginning of this year. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings substantially (or already accumulated large positions).
According to Insider Monkey’s hedge fund database, Richard Mashaal’s Rima Senvest Management has the most valuable position in Attunity Ltd (NASDAQ:ATTU), worth close to $5.2 million. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is William Charters and Mario Marcon of Sabal Capital Management, with a $2.6 million position; the fund has 8% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedge funds and institutional investors that hold long positions encompass Phil Frohlich’s Prescott Group Capital Management, Renaissance Technologies which is one of the largest hedge funds in the world and Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates. We should note that none of these hedge funds are among our list of the 100 best performing hedge funds which is based on the performance of their 13F long positions in non-microcap stocks.
We view hedge fund activity in the stock unfavorable, but in this case there was only a single hedge fund selling its entire position: Two Sigma Advisors. One hedge fund selling its entire position doesn’t always imply a bearish intent. Theoretically a hedge fund may decide to sell a promising position in order to invest the proceeds in a more promising idea. However, we don’t think this is the case in this case because none of the 700+ hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey identified ATTU as a viable investment and initiated a position in the stock.
Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Attunity Ltd (NASDAQ:ATTU). We will take a look at Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:AUPH), Gridsum Holding Inc – ADR (NASDAQ:GSUM), QLT Inc. (USA) (NASDAQ:QLTI), and Papa Murphy’s Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:FRSH). This group of stocks’ market valuations resemble ATTU’s market valuation.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| AUPH | 3 | 867 | -2 |
| GSUM | 17 | 48219 | 17 |
| QLTI | 12 | 29161 | -2 |
| FRSH | 7 | 10470 | 2 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 10 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $22 million. That figure was $13 million in ATTU’s case. Gridsum Holding Inc – ADR (NASDAQ:GSUM) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:AUPH) is the least popular one with only 3 bullish hedge fund positions. Attunity Ltd (NASDAQ:ATTU) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below 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 GSUM might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.
Disclosure: None
