Is NV5 Global Inc (NVEE) A Good Stock To Buy?

It seems that the masses and most of the financial media hate hedge funds and what they do, but why is this hatred of hedge funds so prominent? At the end of the day, these asset management firms do not gamble the hard-earned money of the people who are on the edge of poverty. Truth be told, most hedge fund managers and other smaller players within this industry are very smart and skilled investors. Of course, they may also make wrong bets in some instances, but no one knows what the future holds and how market participants will react to the bountiful news that floods in each day. The S&P 500 Index gained 7.6% in the 12 month-period that ended November 21, while less than 49% of its stocks beat the benchmark. In contrast, the 30 most popular mid-cap stocks among the top hedge fund investors tracked by the Insider Monkey team returned 18% over the same period, which provides evidence that these money managers do have great stock picking abilities. That’s why we believe it isn’t a waste of time to check out hedge fund sentiment before you invest in a stock like NV5 Global Inc (NASDAQ:NVEE).

NV5 Global Inc (NASDAQ:NVEE) has seen a decrease in hedge fund interest of late. NVEE was in 7 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. There were 10 hedge funds in our database with NVEE positions 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 Sinovac Biotech Ltd. (NASDAQ:SVA), CommunityOne Bancorp (NASDAQ:COB), and Bill Barrett Corporation (NYSE:BBG) to gather more data points.

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Now, we’re going to take a glance at the key action surrounding NV5 Global Inc (NASDAQ:NVEE).

What have hedge funds been doing with NV5 Global Inc (NASDAQ:NVEE)?

At Q3’s end, a total of 7 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of -30% from one quarter earlier. On the other hand, there were a total of 7 hedge funds with a bullish position in NVEE at the beginning of this year. So, let’s examine which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates has the biggest position in NV5 Global Inc (NASDAQ:NVEE), worth close to $9.3 million, corresponding to 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Manatuck Hill Partners, led by Mark Broach, which holds a $8.9 million position; the fund has 3.6% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining members of the smart money that hold long positions comprise Richard Driehaus’s Driehaus Capital, Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP and Mark N. Diker’s Diker Management. We should note that Diker Management is among our list of the 100 best performing hedge funds which is based on the performance of their 13F long positions in non-microcap stocks.

We already know that not all hedge funds are bullish on the stock and some hedge funds actually sold off their positions entirely. At the top of the heap, Anand Parekh’s Alyeska Investment Group sold off the biggest investment of all the investors followed by Insider Monkey, valued at close to $2.6 million in stock, and Millennium Management, one of the 10 largest hedge funds in the world was right behind this move, as the fund cut about $1.2 million worth of shares.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to NV5 Global Inc (NASDAQ:NVEE). We will take a look at Sinovac Biotech Ltd. (NASDAQ:SVA), CommunityOne Bancorp (NASDAQ:COB), Bill Barrett Corporation (NYSE:BBG), and Cloud Peak Energy Inc. (NYSE:CLD). This group of stocks’ market values are closest to NVEE’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 10.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $41 million. That figure was $25 million in NVEE’s case. Bill Barrett Corporation (NYSE:BBG) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand CommunityOne Bancorp (NASDAQ:COB) is the least popular one with only 4 bullish hedge fund positions. NV5 Global Inc (NASDAQ:NVEE) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard BBG might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.