A whopping number of 13F filings filed with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has been processed by Insider Monkey so that individual investors can look at the overall hedge fund sentiment towards the stocks included in their watchlists. These freshly-submitted public filings disclose money managers’ equity positions as of the end of the three-month period that ended September 30, so let’s proceed with the discussion of the hedge fund sentiment on IDT Corporation (NYSE:IDT).
Hedge fund interest in IDT Corporation (NYSE:IDT) shares was flat during the third quarter. This is usually a negative indicator. 10 hedge funds that we track owned the stock on September 30, same as on June 30. 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 boost in popularity but it may still be less popular than similarly priced stocks. That’s why at the end of this article we will examine companies such as Flexsteel Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:FLXS), First Bancorp (NASDAQ:FBNC), and Whitestone REIT (NYSE:WSR) to gather more data points.
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Hedge fund activity in IDT Corporation (NYSE:IDT)
At Q3’s end, a total of 10 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, unchanged from one quarter earlier. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards IDT over the last 5 quarters, which has remained very stable. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).
When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Renaissance Technologies, one of the largest hedge funds in the world, holds the biggest position in IDT Corporation (NYSE:IDT), valued at $22.8 million. On Renaissance Technologies’ heels is Kahn Brothers, with an $8.1 million position; 1.5% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other peers with similar optimism encompass Cliff Asness’ AQR Capital Management, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, and John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors. We should note that none of these hedge funds are among our list of the 100 best performing hedge funds, which is based on the performance of their 13F long positions in non-micro-cap stocks.
Judging by the fact that IDT Corporation (NYSE:IDT) has encountered flat sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, we can see that there lies a certain “tier” of hedgies who sold off their entire stakes in the third quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Peter Algert and Kevin Coldiron’s Algert Coldiron Investors dropped the biggest position of the “upper crust” of funds studied by Insider Monkey, comprising close to $0.8 million in stock, and Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $0.2 million worth of shares.
Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as IDT Corporation (NYSE:IDT) but similarly valued. These stocks are Flexsteel Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:FLXS), First Bancorp (NASDAQ:FBNC), Whitestone REIT (NYSE:WSR), and NanoString Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:NSTG). This group of stocks’ market caps are closest to IDT’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| FLXS | 8 | 60147 | 2 |
| FBNC | 8 | 26592 | 0 |
| WSR | 7 | 11132 | -1 |
| NSTG | 21 | 100355 | 9 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 11 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $50 million. That figure was $40 million in IDT’s case. NanoString Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:NSTG) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Whitestone REIT (NYSE:WSR) is the least popular one with only 7 bullish hedge fund positions. IDT Corporation (NYSE:IDT) 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 NSTG might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.
Disclosure: None
