You probably know from experience that there is not as much information on small-cap companies as there is on large companies. Of course, this makes it really hard and difficult for individual investors to make proper and accurate analysis of certain small-cap companies. However, well-known and successful hedge fund investors like Carl Icahn and George Soros hold the necessary resources and abilities to conduct an extensive stock analysis on small-cap stocks, which enable them to make millions of dollars by identifying potential winners within the small-cap galaxy of stocks. This represents the main reason why Insider Monkey takes notice of the hedge fund activity in these overlooked stocks.
In this article, we are going to take a closer look at the hedge fund sentiment towards Consolidated-Tomoka Land Co. (NYSEMKT:CTO). The smart money seems to be in a bearish mood, as the number of investors from our database long CTO inched up by one during the third quarter. At the end of this article we will also compare CTO to other stocks including Heritage-Crystal Clean, Inc. (NASDAQ:HCCI), Corbus Pharmaceuticals Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CRBP), and Mazor Robotics Ltd – ADR (NASDAQ:MZOR) 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 view the fresh action regarding Consolidated-Tomoka Land Co. (NYSEMKT:CTO).
Hedge fund activity in Consolidated-Tomoka Land Co. (NYSEMKT:CTO)
Heading into the fourth quarter of 2016, eight funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long CTO, down by 11% from one quarter earlier. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in CTO over the last five quarters. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes substantially (or already accumulated large positions).
Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, David Winters’ Wintergreen Advisers holds the number one position in Consolidated-Tomoka Land Co. (NYSEMKT:CTO). Wintergreen Advisers has a $79 million position in the stock, comprising 30.8% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by J. Alan Reid , Jr.’s Forward Management, which disclosed a $21.6 million position; 1.6% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other members of the smart money with similar optimism comprise Clint Carlson’s Carlson Capital, Seth Fischer’s Oasis Managementá, and Amy Minella’s Cardinal Capital. We should note that Forward Management is 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.
Now that we’ve mentioned the most bullish investors, let’s also take a look at some funds that dropped their entire stakes in the stock during the third quarter. At the top of the heap, Michael Reeber’s Andalusian Capital Partners dropped the largest investment of the “upper crust” of funds studied by Insider Monkey, valued at an estimated $2.3 million in stock. First Eagle Investment Management, also dropped its stock, about $0.2 million worth.
Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Consolidated-Tomoka Land Co. (NYSEMKT:CTO) but similarly valued. These stocks are Heritage-Crystal Clean, Inc. (NASDAQ:HCCI), Corbus Pharmaceuticals Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CRBP), Mazor Robotics Ltd – ADR (NASDAQ:MZOR), and Fogo de Chao Inc (NASDAQ:FOGO). This group of stocks’ market values resemble CTO’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| HCCI | 6 | 50196 | 2 |
| CRBP | 5 | 51279 | -2 |
| MZOR | 5 | 29463 | 0 |
| FOGO | 4 | 16469 | -2 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of just five funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $37 million. That figure was $121 million in CTO’s case. Heritage-Crystal Clean, Inc. (NASDAQ:HCCI) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Fogo de Chao Inc (NASDAQ:FOGO) is the least popular one with only four bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Consolidated-Tomoka Land Co. (NYSEMKT:CTO) 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.
Disclosure: None
