Insider Monkey has processed numerous 13F filings of hedge funds and famous investors to create an extensive database of hedge fund holdings. The 13F filings show the hedge funds and investors’ positions as of the end of the third quarter. You can find write-ups about an individual hedge fund’s trades on numerous financial news websites. However, in this article we will take a look at their collective moves and analyze what the smart money thinks of Park Electrochemical Corp. (NYSE:PKE) based on that data.
Is Park Electrochemical Corp. a first-rate investment now? Hedge funds are in a pessimistic mood. The number of long hedge fund bets went down by 3 recently. At the end of this article we will also compare PKE to other stocks, including Gain Capital Holdings Inc (NYSE:GCAP), Clifton Savings Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSBK), and Sun Bancorp, Inc. /NJ (NASDAQ:SNBC) to get a better sense of its popularity.
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In the financial world there are many signals stock market investors employ to size up stocks. Two of the most innovative signals are hedge fund and insider trading moves. Our experts have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top fund managers can outpace the broader indices by a very impressive margin (see the details here).
Keeping this in mind, we’re going to check out the recent action surrounding Park Electrochemical Corp. (NYSE:PKE).
How are hedge funds trading Park Electrochemical Corp. (NYSE:PKE)?
At the end of the third quarter, a total of 7 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a drop of 30% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings significantly (or already accumulated large positions).
Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates has the largest position in Park Electrochemical Corp. (NYSE:PKE), worth close to $43.9 million, corresponding to 0.2% of its total 13F portfolio. On Royce & Associates’s heels is Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies, with a $12.1 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other members of the smart money that hold long positions include Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors.
Due to the fact that Park Electrochemical Corp. (NYSE:PKE) has faced a declination in interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, logic holds that there exists a select few funds that elected to cut their positions entirely in the third quarter. Interestingly, D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw cut the biggest investment of the 700 funds monitored by Insider Monkey, worth an estimated $0.4 million in stock. Israel Englander’s fund, Millennium Management, also said goodbye to its stock, about $0.3 million worth of shares. These bearish behaviors are important to note, as total hedge fund interest fell by 3 funds in the third quarter.
Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Park Electrochemical Corp. (NYSE:PKE) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Gain Capital Holdings Inc (NYSE:GCAP), Clifton Savings Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSBK), Sun Bancorp, Inc. /NJ (NASDAQ:SNBC), and Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSII). All of these stocks’ market caps resemble PKE’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| GCAP | 17 | 48092 | 1 |
| CSBK | 11 | 44743 | 0 |
| SNBC | 5 | 105104 | 0 |
| HSII | 16 | 42022 | 4 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 12 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $60 million. That figure was $70 million in PKE’s case, a positive sign. Gain Capital Holdings Inc (NYSE:GCAP) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Sun Bancorp, Inc. /NJ (NASDAQ:SNBC) is the least popular one with only 5 bullish hedge fund positions. Park Electrochemical Corp. (NYSE:PKE) 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 GCAP might be a better candidate to consider a long position.
