Is Manpowergroup Inc (MAN) a Good Stock to Buy?

While the market driven by short-term sentiment influenced by uncertainty regarding the future of the interest rate environment in the US, the low commodity prices and the economic turmoil in China, many smart money investors are keeping their optimism regarding the current bull run, while still hedging many of their long positions. However, as we know, big investors usually buy stocks with strong fundamentals, which is why we believe we can profit from imitating them. In this article, we are going to take a look at the smart money sentiment surrounding Manpowergroup Inc (NYSE:MAN).

Is Manpowergroup Inc a superb investment today? The best stock pickers are getting less bullish. The number of bullish hedge fund bets went down by 1 lately. MAN was in 25 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. There were 26 hedge funds in our database with MAN holdings at the end of the previous quarter. 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 Ingredion Inc (NYSE:INGR), NVR, Inc. (NYSE:NVR), and TECO Energy, Inc. (NYSE:TE) to gather more data points.

If you’d ask most traders, hedge funds are assumed to be slow, outdated investment tools of years past. While there are more than 8,000 funds trading today, We hone in on the aristocrats of this club, about 700 funds. It is estimated that this group of investors handle most of all hedge funds’ total capital, and by following their unrivaled stock picks, Insider Monkey has unsheathed a number of investment strategies that have historically exceeded the market. Insider Monkey’s small-cap hedge fund strategy outstripped the S&P 500 index by 12 percentage points annually for a decade in their back tests.

Now, we’re going to view the key action surrounding Manpowergroup Inc (NYSE:MAN).

How are hedge funds trading Manpowergroup Inc (NYSE:MAN)?

At the end of the third quarter, a total of 25 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of -4% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).

According to Insider Monkey’s hedge fund database, Larry Robbins’ Glenview Capital has the number one position in Manpowergroup Inc (NYSE:MAN), worth close to $494.5 million, comprising 2.5% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is AQR Capital Management, managed by Cliff Asness, which holds a $125.3 million position; the fund has 0.3% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other professional money managers with similar optimism comprise Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates, Alexander Mitchell’s Scopus Asset Management and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

Judging by the fact that Manpowergroup Inc (NYSE:MAN) has faced bearish sentiment from the smart money, logic holds that there is a sect of hedgies that elected to cut their full holdings last quarter. Intriguingly, Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies dropped the biggest position of all the hedgies monitored by Insider Monkey, worth close to $12.4 million in stock. Andy Redleaf’s fund, Whitebox Advisors, also cut its stock, about $5.9 million worth. These transactions are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 1 funds last quarter.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Manpowergroup Inc (NYSE:MAN). These stocks are Ingredion Inc (NYSE:INGR), NVR, Inc. (NYSE:NVR), TECO Energy, Inc. (NYSE:TE), and Qihoo 360 Technology Co Ltd (NYSE:QIHU). This group of stocks’ market values resemble MAN’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 20.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $364 million. That figure was $863 million in MAN’s case. Ingredion Inc (NYSE:INGR) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Qihoo 360 Technology Co Ltd (NYSE:QIHU) is the least popular one with only 19 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Manpowergroup Inc (NYSE:MAN) 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.