Is Carlisle Companies Inc. (CSL) A Good Stock To Buy?

Insider Monkey finished processing more than 700 13F filings made by hedge funds and prominent investors. These filings show these funds’ portfolio positions as of September 30. In this article we are going to take a look at smart money sentiment towards Carlisle Companies, Inc. (NYSE:CSL).

Is Carlisle Companies, Inc. (NYSE:CSL) a buy, sell, or hold? Money managers are betting on the stock. The number of bullish hedge fund bets improved by 2 lately. The level and the change in hedge fund popularity aren’t the only variables you need to analyze to decipher hedge funds’ perspectives. A stock may witness a boost in popularity but it may still be less popular than similarly priced stocks. That’s why at the end of this article we will examine companies such as Equity Lifestyle Properties, Inc. (NYSE:ELS), News Corp (NASDAQ:NWS), and Targa Resources Corp (NYSE:TRGP) to gather more data points.

Follow Carlisle Companies Inc (NYSE:CSL)

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How have hedgies been trading Carlisle Companies, Inc. (NYSE:CSL)?

Heading into the fourth quarter of 2016, a total of 24 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a 9% jump from the previous quarter. Hedge fund ownership of CSL has remained in an extremely narrow range during the past five 13F reporting periods, with between 22 and 24 funds long the stock during each period. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes significantly (or already accumulated large positions).

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When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Cliff Asness’ AQR Capital Management has the most valuable position in Carlisle Companies, Inc. (NYSE:CSL), worth close to $74.1 million. Coming in second is Robert Joseph Caruso of Select Equity Group, with a $62.7 million position. Remaining hedge funds and institutional investors that are bullish comprise Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Anand Parekh’s Alyeska Investment Group and Matthew Lindenbaum’s Basswood Capital.

As one would reasonably expect, some big names were breaking ground themselves. Interval Partners, managed by Gregg Moskowitz, initiated the largest position in Carlisle Companies, Inc. (NYSE:CSL). Interval Partners had $6.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Bruce Kovner’s Caxton Associates LP also made a $5.1 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new CSL positions are Andrew Feldstein and Stephen Siderow’s Blue Mountain Capital, Brian Taylor’s Pine River Capital Management, and Mike Vranos’ Ellington.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Carlisle Companies, Inc. (NYSE:CSL) but similarly valued. These stocks are Equity Lifestyle Properties, Inc. (NYSE:ELS), News Corp (NASDAQ:NWS), Targa Resources Corp (NYSE:TRGP), and Zayo Group Holdings Inc (NYSE:ZAYO). This group of stocks’ market values are similar to CSL’s market value.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
ELS 11 271254 -3
NWS 16 200879 2
TRGP 30 466886 0
ZAYO 50 2125584 9

As you can see these stocks had an average of 26.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $766 million. That figure was $362 million in CSL’s case. Zayo Group Holdings Inc (NYSE:ZAYO) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Equity Lifestyle Properties, Inc. (NYSE:ELS) is the least popular one with only 11 bullish hedge fund positions. Carlisle Companies, Inc. (NYSE:CSL) 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 ZAYO might be a better candidate to consider a long position.

Disclosure: None