Hedge funds run by legendary names like Nelson Peltz and David Tepper make billions of dollars a year for themselves and their super-rich accredited investors (you’ve got to have a minimum of $1 million liquid to invest in a hedge fund) by spending enormous resources on analyzing and uncovering data about small-cap stocks that the big brokerage houses don’t follow. Small caps are where they can generate significant out-performance. These stocks have been on a tear since the end of June, outperforming large-cap index funds by more than 10 percentage points. That’s why we pay special attention to hedge fund activity in these stocks.
Is Kennametal Inc. (NYSE:KMT) an excellent investment now? Prominent investors are becoming more confident. The number of long hedge fund positions increased by 4 lately. 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 Anixter International Inc. (NYSE:AXE), M/A-COM Technology Solutions Holdings (NASDAQ:MTSI), and Triumph Group Inc (NYSE:TGI) to gather more data points.
Follow Kennametal Inc (NYSE:KMT)
Follow Kennametal Inc (NYSE:KMT)
At Insider Monkey, we’ve developed an investment strategy that has delivered market-beating returns over the past 12 months. Our strategy identifies the 100 best-performing funds of the previous quarter from among the collection of 700+ successful funds that we track in our database, which we accomplish using our returns methodology. We then study the portfolios of those 100 funds using the latest 13F data to uncover the 30 most popular mid-cap stocks (market caps of between $1 billion and $10 billion) among them to hold until the next filing period. This strategy delivered 18% gains over the past 12 months, more than doubling the 8% returns enjoyed by the S&P 500 ETFs.
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With all of this in mind, let’s review the latest action surrounding Kennametal Inc. (NYSE:KMT).
What does the smart money think about Kennametal Inc. (NYSE:KMT)?
Heading into the fourth quarter of 2016, a total of 24 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a jump of 20% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes considerably (or already accumulated large positions).
Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Ariel Investments, managed by John W. Rogers, holds the number one position in Kennametal Inc. (NYSE:KMT). According to regulatory filings, the ufnd has a $271 million position in the stock, comprising 3.3% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is AQR Capital Management, led by Cliff Asness, holding a $32.1 million position; the fund has less than 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedge funds and institutional investors with similar optimism encompass Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management and Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management.
