Is EVI Industries Inc (EVI) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds?

The latest 13F reporting period has come and gone, and Insider Monkey is again at the forefront when it comes to making use of this gold mine of data. Insider Monkey finished processing 866 13F filings submitted by hedge funds and prominent investors. These filings show these funds’ portfolio positions as of March 31st, 2020. What do these smart investors think about EVI Industries Inc (NYSE:EVI)?

EVI Industries Inc (NYSE:EVI) has experienced an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds recently. EVI Industries Inc (NYSE:EVI) was in 4 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the first quarter of 2021. The all time high for this statistic is 5. There were 2 hedge funds in our database with EVI positions at the end of the fourth quarter. Our calculations also showed that EVI isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q1 rankings).

So, why do we pay attention to hedge fund sentiment before making any investment decisions? Our research has shown that hedge funds’ small-cap stock picks managed to beat the market by double digits annually between 1999 and 2016, but the margin of outperformance has been declining in recent years. Nevertheless, we were still able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by more than 115 percentage points since March 2017 (see the details here). We have been able to outperform the passive index funds by tracking the moves of corporate insiders and hedge funds, and we believe small investors can benefit a lot from reading hedge fund investor letters and 13F filings.

David E. Shaw of D.E. Shaw

At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, an activist hedge fund wants to buy this $28 biotech stock for $50. So, we recommended a long position to our monthly premium newsletter subscribers. We go through lists like the 10 best battery stocks to pick the next Tesla that will deliver a 10x return. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. You can subscribe to our free daily newsletter on our homepage. With all of this in mind let’s take a look at the latest hedge fund action encompassing EVI Industries Inc (NYSE:EVI).

Do Hedge Funds Think EVI Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?

At first quarter’s end, a total of 4 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 100% from the fourth quarter of 2020. By comparison, 1 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in EVI a year ago. So, let’s examine which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates has the most valuable position in EVI Industries Inc (NYSE:EVI), worth close to $18.3 million, amounting to 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, which holds a $0.5 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other hedge funds and institutional investors that hold long positions encompass Renaissance Technologies, D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw and . In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Royce & Associates allocated the biggest weight to EVI Industries Inc (NYSE:EVI), around 0.12% of its 13F portfolio. Renaissance Technologies is also relatively very bullish on the stock, setting aside 0.0005 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to EVI.

As aggregate interest increased, key hedge funds were leading the bulls’ herd. Renaissance Technologies,  initiated the most valuable position in EVI Industries Inc (NYSE:EVI). Renaissance Technologies had $0.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw also initiated a $0.3 million position during the quarter.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to EVI Industries Inc (NYSE:EVI). These stocks are VYNE Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:VYNE), Mechel PAO (NYSE:MTL), Puxin Limited (NYSE:NEW), Matrix Service Co (NASDAQ:MTRX), A-Mark Precious Metals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMRK), Steel Partners Holdings LP (NYSE:SPLP), and Radiant Logistics, Inc. (NYSE:RLGT). This group of stocks’ market caps are closest to EVI’s market cap.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 8.1 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $28 million. That figure was $19 million in EVI’s case. Radiant Logistics, Inc. (NYSE:RLGT) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Mechel PAO (NYSE:MTL) is the least popular one with only 3 bullish hedge fund positions. EVI Industries Inc (NYSE:EVI) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for EVI is 36. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. Our calculations showed that top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 95.8% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 40 percentage points. These stocks gained 17.2% in 2021 through June 11th and still beat the market by 3.3 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on EVI as the stock returned 13.3% since the end of the first quarter (through 6/11) and outperformed the market by an even larger margin.

Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.