Is CONMED Corporation (CNMD) A Good Stock To Buy?

There are several ways to beat the market, and investing in small cap stocks has historically been one of them. We like to improve the odds of beating the market further by examining what famous hedge fund operators such as Carl Icahn and George Soros think. Those hedge fund operators make billions of dollars each year by hiring the best and the brightest to do research on stocks, including small cap stocks that big brokerage houses simply don’t cover. Because of Carl Icahn and other elite funds’ exemplary historical records, we pay attention to their small cap picks. In this article, we use hedge fund filing data to analyze CONMED Corporation (NASDAQ:CNMD).

CONMED Corporation (NASDAQ:CNMD) shareholders have witnessed an increase in support from the world’s most elite money managers lately. CONMED Corporation (NASDAQ:CNMD) was in 19 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. There were 17 hedge funds in our database with CONMED Corporation (NASDAQ:CNMD) holdings at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of this article, we will also compare CONMED Corporation (NASDAQ:CNMD) to other stocks, including Brink’S Company (NYSE:BCO), RealPage, Inc. (NASDAQ:RP), and Drew Industries, Inc. (NYSE:DW) to get a better sense of its popularity.

To most stock holders, hedge funds are viewed as underperforming, outdated investment vehicles of yesteryear. While there are more than 8000 funds in operation at the moment, our experts hone in on the aristocrats of this club, around 700 funds. These hedge fund managers command the lion’s share of the smart money’s total capital, and by keeping an eye on their unrivaled stock picks, Insider Monkey has determined several investment strategies that have historically outpaced the market. Insider Monkey’s small-cap hedge fund strategy surpassed the S&P 500 index by 12 percentage points annually for a decade in their back tests.

Now, we’re going to take a look at the fresh action surrounding CONMED Corporation (NASDAQ:CNMD).

How have hedgies been trading CONMED Corporation (NASDAQ:CNMD)?

Heading into Q4, a total of 19 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, an increase of 12% from the second quarter. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings substantially (or already accumulated large positions).

When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Jacob Gottlieb’s Visium Asset Management has the largest position in CONMED Corporation (NASDAQ:CNMD), worth close to $111.7 million, accounting for 1.5% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Coppersmith Capital, led by Jerome Lande and Craig Rosenblum, holding a $77.9 million position; the fund has 72.6% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other professional money managers that hold long positions include Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management, Joe Huber’s Huber Capital Management, and Jonathon Jacobson’s Highfields Capital Management.

As one would reasonably expect, key hedge funds were breaking ground themselves. Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, initiated the biggest position in CONMED Corporation (NASDAQ:CNMD). Millennium Management had $1.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Renaissance Technologies also initiated a $1 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new CONMED Corporation (NASDAQ:CNMD) investors: Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP, Peter Muller’s PDT Partners, and Paul Tudor Jones’ Tudor Investment Corp.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as CONMED Corporation (NASDAQ:CNMD) but similarly valued. These stocks are Brink’S Co (NYSE:BCO), RealPage, Inc. (NASDAQ:RP), Drew Industries, Inc. (NYSE:DW), and Renasant Corp. (NASDAQ:RNST). All of these stocks’ market caps are closest to CONMED Corporation (NASDAQ:CNMD)’s market cap.

As you can see, these stocks had an average of 13 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $200 million. That figure was $249 million in CONMED Corporation (NASDAQ:CNMD)’s case. Brink’S Company (NYSE:BCO) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand, Renasant Corp. (NASDAQ:RNST) is the least popular one with only 10 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks, CONMED Corporation (NASDAQ:CNMD) is more popular among hedge funds. Considering that hedge funds are fond of this stock in relation to its market cap peers, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and potentially include it in your portfolio.