A whopping number of 13F filings filed with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has been processed by Insider Monkey so that individual investors can look at the overall hedge fund sentiment towards the stocks included in their watchlists. These freshly-submitted public filings disclose money managers’ equity positions as of the end of the three-month period that ended September 30, so let’s proceed with the discussion of the hedge fund sentiment on Balchem Corporation (NASDAQ:BCPC).
Is Balchem Corporation (NASDAQ:BCPC) a buy, sell, or hold? Investors who are in the know are altogether becoming hopeful. The number of bullish hedge fund investments strengthened by 1 lately. There were 7 hedge funds in our database with BCPC holdings at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of this article we will also compare BCPC to other stocks including MasTec, Inc. (NYSE:MTZ), Silicon Laboratories (NASDAQ:SLAB), and Lexington Realty Trust (NYSE:LXP) to get a better sense of its popularity.
Follow Balchem Corp (NASDAQ:BCPC)
Follow Balchem Corp (NASDAQ:BCPC)
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 review the recent action surrounding Balchem Corporation (NASDAQ:BCPC).
How have hedgies been trading Balchem Corporation (NASDAQ:BCPC)?
At the end of the third quarter, a total of 8 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 14% from the previous quarter. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards BCPC over the last 5 quarters. So, let’s check out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Royce & Associates, led by Chuck Royce, holds the largest position in Balchem Corporation (NASDAQ:BCPC). Royce & Associates has a $71.4 million position in the stock, comprising 0.5% of its 13F portfolio. On Royce & Associates’s heels is Daruma Asset Management, led by Mariko Gordon, which holds a $2.2 million position; 0.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining peers that are bullish encompass Mike Vranos’s Ellington, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management. 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.
With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, some big names were leading the bulls’ herd. Daruma Asset Management, led by Mariko Gordon, established the most valuable position in Balchem Corporation (NASDAQ:BCPC). Daruma Asset Management had $2.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Mike Vranos’s Ellington also initiated a $0.7 million position during the quarter. The only other fund with a new position in the stock is Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.
Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Balchem Corporation (NASDAQ:BCPC). We will take a look at MasTec, Inc. (NYSE:MTZ), Silicon Laboratories (NASDAQ:SLAB), Lexington Realty Trust (NYSE:LXP), and Mack Cali Realty Corp (NYSE:CLI). This group of stocks’ market caps resemble BCPC’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| MTZ | 23 | 294067 | 0 |
| SLAB | 15 | 112313 | 3 |
| LXP | 16 | 54051 | 3 |
| CLI | 10 | 114408 | -2 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 16 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $144 million. That figure was $76 million in BCPC’s case. MasTec, Inc. (NYSE:MTZ) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Mack Cali Realty Corp (NYSE:CLI) is the least popular one with only 10 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Balchem Corporation (NASDAQ:BCPC) is even less popular than CLI. 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.
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