Is Hemisphere Media Group Inc (HMTV) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds?

The worries about the economic slowdown in China and the ongoing uncertainty about the path of interest-rate increases triggered several waves of equity sell-offs during the third quarter. Of course, most hedge funds and other asset managers had to stomach substantial losses during the bloody three-month period, which might have caused some to consider fleeing the U.S. equity markets. Interestingly, smaller-cap stocks registered higher losses than large-capitalization stocks during the September quarter, suggesting that institutional investors heavily discarded seemingly riskier equities amid high uncertainty and turmoil. In fact, the Russell 2000 Index lost 11.9% in the third quarter, while the Standard and Poor’s 500 benchmark declined a mere 6.4%. This article will lay out and discuss the hedge fund and institutional investor sentiment towards Hemisphere Media Group Inc (NASDAQ:HMTV).

Is Hemisphere Media Group Inc (NASDAQ:HMTV) worth your attention right now? Investors who are in the know are taking a bearish view. The number of long hedge fund bets decreased by 3 in recent months. At the end of this article we will also compare HMTV to other stocks including Albany Molecular Research, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMRI), TTM Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTMI), and Workiva Inc (NYSE:WK) to get a better sense of its popularity.

In the eyes of most investors, hedge funds are viewed as unimportant, outdated financial vehicles of years past. While there are over an 8000 funds trading today, Our researchers choose to focus on the leaders of this group, about 700 funds. These investment experts oversee bulk of the smart money’s total capital, and by monitoring their inimitable picks, Insider Monkey has unearthed several investment strategies that have historically outpaced the market. Insider Monkey’s small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 index by 12 percentage points per year for a decade in their back tests.

Now, let’s take a gander at the latest action encompassing Hemisphere Media Group Inc (NASDAQ:HMTV).

What have hedge funds been doing with Hemisphere Media Group Inc (NASDAQ:HMTV)?

Heading into Q4, a total of 9 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of -25% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes substantially (or already accumulated large positions).

According to Insider Monkey’s hedge fund database, Christian Leone’s Luxor Capital Group has the biggest position in Hemisphere Media Group Inc (NASDAQ:HMTV), worth close to $68.6 million, amounting to 1.6% of its total 13F portfolio. The second most bullish fund manager is Pleasant Lake Partners, managed by Jonathan Lennon, which holds a $27.1 million position; the fund has 14.4% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other peers that hold long positions consist of Debra Fine’s Fine Capital Partners, and Charles Davidson’s Wexford Capital.

Due to the fact that Hemisphere Media Group Inc (NASDAQ:HMTV) has experienced a falling interest from the smart money, we can see that there was a specific group of money managers that decided to sell off their entire stakes by the end of the third quarter. Intriguingly, David Atterbury’s Whetstone Capital Advisors cut the biggest investment of all the hedgies monitored by Insider Monkey, totaling close to $7.2 million in stock. Quincy Lee’s fund, Ancient Art (Teton Capital), also said goodbye to its stock, about $4.1 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest fell by 3 funds by the end of the third quarter.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Hemisphere Media Group Inc (NASDAQ:HMTV) but similarly valued. These stocks are Albany Molecular Research, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMRI), TTM Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTMI), Workiva Inc (NYSE:WK), and Tidewater Inc. (NYSE:TDW). This group of stocks’ market caps are similar to HMTV’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 $65 million. That figure was $139 million in HMTV’s case. TTM Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTMI) is the most popular stock in this table, while Workiva Inc (NYSE:WK) is the least popular one with only 4 bullish hedge fund positions. Hemisphere Media Group Inc (NASDAQ:HMTV) 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 TTMI might be a better candidate to consider a long position.