Is JIH Stock A Buy or Sell?

In this article you are going to find out whether hedge funds think Juniper Industrial Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:JIH) 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 JIH stock a buy? Juniper Industrial Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:JIH) investors should pay attention to an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds in recent months. Juniper Industrial Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:JIH) was in 26 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of December. The all time high for this statistic was previously 22. This means the bullish number of hedge fund positions in this stock currently sits at its all time high. Our calculations also showed that JIH isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q4 rankings).

Emanuel Friedman of EJF Capital

At Insider Monkey we leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, auto parts business is a recession resistant business, so we are taking a closer look at this discount auto parts stock that is growing at a 196% annualized rate. We go through lists like the 15 best micro-cap stocks to buy now 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. Now we’re going to take a look at the fresh hedge fund action encompassing Juniper Industrial Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:JIH).

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

Heading into the first quarter of 2021, a total of 26 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 18% from one quarter earlier. On the other hand, there were a total of 16 hedge funds with a bullish position in JIH a year ago. So, let’s check out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

More specifically, Corsair Capital Management was the largest shareholder of Juniper Industrial Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:JIH), with a stake worth $36.1 million reported as of the end of December. Trailing Corsair Capital Management was BlueCrest Capital Mgmt., which amassed a stake valued at $20.6 million. Magnetar Capital, Millennium Management, and EJF 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 Corsair Capital Management allocated the biggest weight to Juniper Industrial Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:JIH), around 8.32% of its 13F portfolio. EJF Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, dishing out 1.62 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to JIH.

As industrywide interest jumped, key hedge funds have jumped into Juniper Industrial Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:JIH) headfirst. Corsair Capital Management, managed by Jay Petschek and Steven Major, created the biggest position in Juniper Industrial Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:JIH). Corsair Capital Management had $36.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Emanuel J. Friedman’s EJF Capital also initiated a $16.2 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new JIH investors: Alexander Mitchell’s Scopus Asset Management, Ira Unschuld’s Brant Point Investment Management, and Phillip Goldstein, Andrew Dakos and Steven Samuels’s Bulldog Investors.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Juniper Industrial Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:JIH). These stocks are Hingham Institution for Savings (NASDAQ:HIFS), The Manitowoc Company, Inc. (NYSE:MTW), Lawson Products, Inc. (NASDAQ:LAWS), XBiotech Inc. (NASDAQ:XBIT), International Seaways, Inc. (NYSE:INSW), Catchmark Timber Trust Inc (NYSE:CTT), and NeoPhotonics Corp (NYSE:NPTN). All of these stocks’ market caps match JIH’s market cap.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 10.1 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $45 million. That figure was $210 million in JIH’s case. The Manitowoc Company, Inc. (NYSE:MTW) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Hingham Institution for Savings (NASDAQ:HIFS) is the least popular one with only 1 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Juniper Industrial Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:JIH) is more popular among hedge funds. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for JIH is 89. 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 returned 12.3% in 2021 through April 19th but still managed to beat the market by 0.9 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on JIH as the stock returned 23.7% since the end of December (through 4/19) and outperformed the market by an even larger margin. Hedge funds were clearly right about piling into this stock relative to other stocks with similar market capitalizations.

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