Is Identive Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:INVE) a good investment right now? We check hedge fund and billionaire investor sentiment before delving into hours of research. Hedge funds spend millions of dollars on Ivy League graduates, expert networks, and get tips from industry insiders. They fail miserably sometimes but historically their consensus stock picks outperformed the market after adjusting for known risk factors.
We finished processing more than 700 hedge fund filings and crunched the numbers. Our calculations show that, overall, hedge funds are becoming less confident. The number of bullish hedge fund bets shrunk by 2 recently. 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 dive in popularity but it may still be more popular than similarly priced stocks. That’s why at the end of this article we will examine companies such as Alpha Pro Tech, Ltd. (NYSEAMEX:APT), Qumu Corp (NASDAQ:QUMU), and General Employment Enterprises, Inc. (NYSEAMEX:JOB) to gather more data points.
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According to most stock holders, hedge funds are assumed to be underperforming, old financial vehicles of the past. While there are more than 8000 funds trading at the moment, Hedge fund experts at Insider Monkey look at the leaders of this club, about 700 funds. Most estimates calculate that this group of people shepherd bulk of the smart money’s total capital, and by following their first-class stock picks, Insider Monkey has spotted numerous investment strategies that have historically outrun the broader indices. Insider Monkey’s small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed the S&P 500 index by 12 percentage points annually for more than a decade in our back tests.
Keeping this in mind, let’s take a glance at the new action regarding Identive Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:INVE).
What have hedge funds been doing with Identive Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:INVE)?
At the end of the third quarter, a total of 6 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long in this stock, a change of -25% from the second quarter. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).
When looking at the hedgies followed by Insider Monkey, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the number one position in Identive Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:INVE). Royce & Associates has a $2.2 million position in the stock, comprising less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio. The second most bullish hedge fund manager is Lanexa Global Management, led by Ian P. Murray, holding a $0.5 million position; the fund has 1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedgies that are bullish consist of Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Anand Parekh’s Alyeska Investment Group and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.
Seeing as Identive Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:INVE) has faced falling interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, logic holds that there exists a select few funds that elected to cut their positions entirely in third quarter. Interestingly, Wojciech Uzdelewicz’s Espalier Global Management dropped the biggest investment of the 700 funds followed by Insider Monkey, valued at close to $0.9 million in stock, and Matthew Hulsizer of PEAK6 Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $0.1 million worth. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 2 funds in third quarter.
Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Identive Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:INVE). These stocks are Alpha Pro Tech, Ltd. (NYSEAMEX:APT), Qumu Corp (NASDAQ:QUMU), General Employment Enterprises, Inc. (NYSEAMEX:JOB), and Roka Bioscience Inc (NASDAQ:ROKA). This group of stocks’ market caps match INVE’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| APT | 4 | 2985 | 1 |
| QUMU | 4 | 9549 | 1 |
| JOB | 4 | 1096 | 3 |
| ROKA | 9 | 12306 | -1 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 5.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $6 million. Roka Bioscience Inc (NASDAQ:ROKA) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Alpha Pro Tech, Ltd. (NYSEAMEX:APT) is the least popular one with only 4 bullish hedge fund positions. Identive Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:INVE) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard ROKA might be a better candidate to consider a long position.
