Is John Bean Technologies Corporation (JBT) A Good Stock To Buy?

Is John Bean Technologies Corporation (NYSE:JBT) a good place to invest some of your money right now? We can gain invaluable insight to help us answer that question by studying the investment trends of top investors, who employ world-class Ivy League graduates, who are given immense resources and industry contacts to put their financial expertise to work. The top picks of these firms have historically outperformed the market when we account for known risk factors, making them very valuable investment ideas. Insider Monkey has unsheathed a few investment strategies that have historically exceeded Mr. Market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 index by 12 percentage points a year for a decade in our back tests.

John Bean Technologies returned more than 50% over the last 12 months and most of these gains came over the last 3 months. Our calculations show that the smart money actually turned bullish before the recent increases. The number of long hedge fund positions in JBT went up by 3 during the third quarter. At the end of this article we will also compare JBT to other stocks including Innospec Inc. (NASDAQ:IOSP), Omnicell, Inc. (NASDAQ:OMCL), and The Navigators Group, Inc (NASDAQ:NAVG) to get a better sense of its popularity.

What does the smart money think about John Bean Technologies Corporation (NYSE:JBT)?

At Q3’s end, a total of 19 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 19% from the second quarter. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings considerably (or already accumulated large positions).

According to Insider Monkey’s hedge fund database, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates has the largest position in John Bean Technologies Corporation (NYSE:JBT), worth close to $53.7 million, amounting to 0.3% of its total 13F portfolio. The second most bullish fund manager is Peter Schliemann of Rutabaga Capital Management, with a $13.9 million position; 1.7% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining hedge funds and institutional investors that hold long positions include Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management, Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Adage Capital Management, managed by Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson, established the most valuable position in John Bean Technologies Corporation (NYSE:JBT). Adage Capital Management had $5.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group also initiated a $1.3 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new JBT positions are Mark Coe’s Coe Capital Management, Peter Algert and Kevin Coldiron’s Algert Coldiron Investors, and Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to John Bean Technologies Corporation (NYSE:JBT). We will take a look at Innospec Inc. (NASDAQ:IOSP), Omnicell, Inc. (NASDAQ:OMCL), The Navigators Group, Inc (NASDAQ:NAVG), and Vivint Solar Inc (NYSE:VSLR). All of these stocks’ market caps are similar to JBT’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 15.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $110 million. That figure was $101 million in JBT’s case. Innospec Inc. (NASDAQ:IOSP) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Vivint Solar Inc (NYSE:VSLR) is the least popular one with only 14 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks John Bean Technologies Corporation (NYSE:JBT) is more popular among hedge funds. Considering that hedge funds are fond of this stock in relation to its market cap peers, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and potentially include it in your portfolio.