Is ITGR Stock A Buy or Sell?

In this article you are going to find out whether hedge funds think Integer Holdings Corporation (NYSE:ITGR) is a good investment right now. We like to check what the smart money thinks first before doing extensive research on a given stock. Although there have been several high profile failed hedge fund picks, the consensus picks among hedge fund investors have historically outperformed the market after adjusting for known risk attributes. It’s not surprising given that hedge funds have access to better information and more resources to predict the winners in the stock market.

Is ITGR stock a buy? Integer Holdings Corporation (NYSE:ITGR) shareholders have witnessed an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds of late. Integer Holdings Corporation (NYSE:ITGR) was in 24 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the fourth quarter of 2020. The all time high for this statistic is 29. There were 22 hedge funds in our database with ITGR positions at the end of the third quarter. Our calculations also showed that ITGR isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q4 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 124 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.

Ric Dillon of Diamond Hill Capital

At Insider Monkey we leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, the CBD market is growing at a 33% annualized rate, so we are taking a closer look at this under-the-radar hemp stock. We go through lists like the 10 best biotech stocks under $10 to identify the next stock with 10x upside potential. 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 website. Keeping this in mind let’s take a look at the new hedge fund action encompassing Integer Holdings Corporation (NYSE:ITGR).

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

Heading into the first quarter of 2021, a total of 24 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 9% from the previous quarter. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in ITGR over the last 22 quarters. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes substantially (or already accumulated large positions).

More specifically, Hawk Ridge Management was the largest shareholder of Integer Holdings Corporation (NYSE:ITGR), with a stake worth $75.5 million reported as of the end of December. Trailing Hawk Ridge Management was Fisher Asset Management, which amassed a stake valued at $56.3 million. Diamond Hill Capital, BeaconLight Capital, and Arrowstreet Capital were also very fond of the stock, becoming one of the largest hedge fund holders of the company. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Hawk Ridge Management allocated the biggest weight to Integer Holdings Corporation (NYSE:ITGR), around 6.11% of its 13F portfolio. BeaconLight Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, dishing out 4.16 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to ITGR.

Consequently, key hedge funds were leading the bulls’ herd. BeaconLight Capital, managed by Ed Bosek, created the largest position in Integer Holdings Corporation (NYSE:ITGR). BeaconLight Capital had $13.7 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Benjamin Natter’s Kent Lake Capital also made a $8.4 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Justin John Ferayorni’s Tamarack Capital Management, Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP, and Gavin Saitowitz and Cisco J. del Valle’s Prelude Capital (previously Springbok Capital).

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Integer Holdings Corporation (NYSE:ITGR) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Hilton Grand Vacations Inc. (NYSE:HGV), Atlas Corp. (NYSE:ATCO), Commscope Holding Company Inc (NASDAQ:COMM), Utz Brands Inc (NYSE:UTZ), LGI Homes Inc (NASDAQ:LGIH), Arcosa, Inc. (NYSE:ACA), and Opko Health Inc. (NYSE:OPK). This group of stocks’ market caps are closest to ITGR’s market cap.

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As you can see these stocks had an average of 22.1 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $424 million. That figure was $225 million in ITGR’s case. Commscope Holding Company Inc (NASDAQ:COMM) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Utz Brands Inc (NYSE:UTZ) is the least popular one with only 15 bullish hedge fund positions. Integer Holdings Corporation (NYSE:ITGR) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for ITGR is 54.3. 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 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 81.2% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 26 percentage points. These stocks gained 12.3% in 2021 through April 19th and still beat the market by 0.9 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on ITGR as the stock returned 14.6% since the end of Q4 (through 4/19) and outperformed the market. Hedge funds were rewarded for their relative bullishness.

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

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