There are several ways to beat the market, and investing in small cap stocks has historically been one of them. We like to improve the odds of beating the market further by examining what famous hedge fund operators such as Carl Icahn and George Soros think. Those hedge fund operators make billions of dollars each year by hiring the best and the brightest to do research on stocks, including small cap stocks that big brokerage houses simply don’t cover. Because of Carl Icahn and other elite funds’ exemplary historical records, we pay attention to their small cap picks. In this article, we use hedge fund filing data to analyze Mednax Inc. (NYSE:MD).
Is Mednax Inc. (NYSE:MD) a buy here? Money managers are taking a bullish view. The number of bullish hedge fund positions improved by 6 recently. At the end of this article we will also compare MD to other stocks, including Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG), Synopsys, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNPS), and Mobil’nye Telesistemy PAO (ADR) (NYSE:MBT) to get a better sense of its popularity.
Follow Pediatrix Medical Group Inc. (NYSE:MD)
Follow Pediatrix Medical Group Inc. (NYSE:MD)
Today there are dozens of gauges investors have at their disposal to appraise publicly traded companies. A duo of the best gauges are hedge fund and insider trading interest. Our experts have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best investment managers can outclass their index-focused peers by a significant amount (see the details here).
Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a look at the fresh action encompassing Mednax Inc. (NYSE:MD).
How have hedgies been trading Mednax Inc. (NYSE:MD)?
Heading into Q4, a total of 26 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 30% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings substantially (or already accumulated large positions).
When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Echo Street Capital Management, managed by Greg Poole, holds the number one position in Mednax Inc. (NYSE:MD). Echo Street Capital Management has a $22.9 million position in the stock, comprising 0.8% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, with a $21.6 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining peers that are bullish consist of Brian Ashford-Russell and Tim Woolley’s Polar Capital, Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.
As aggregate interest increased, key hedge funds were breaking ground themselves. Polar Capital, managed by Brian Ashford-Russell and Tim Woolley, assembled the largest position in Mednax Inc. (NYSE:MD). Polar Capital had $15.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management also made a $11.6 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new MD positions are Kris Jenner, Gordon Bussard, Graham McPhail’s Rock Springs Capital Management, Ben Levine, Andrew Manuel and Stefan Renold’s LMR Partners, and Michael Platt and William Reeves’ BlueCrest Capital Mgmt..
Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Mednax Inc. (NYSE:MD). We will take a look at Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG), Synopsys, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNPS), Mobil’nye Telesistemy PAO (ADR) (NYSE:MBT), and China Southern Airlines Co Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:ZNH). All of these stocks’ market caps resemble MD’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| AJG | 20 | 201257 | 2 |
| SNPS | 21 | 279842 | 2 |
| MBT | 13 | 112232 | 1 |
| ZNH | 4 | 22919 | 0 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 15 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $154 million, compared to $136 million in MD’s case. Synopsys, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNPS) is the most popular stock in this table with a total of 21 funds reporting long positions as of the end of September, while China Southern Airlines Co Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:ZNH) is the least popular one with only 4 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Mednax Inc. (NYSE:MD) 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.
