The latest 13F reporting period has come and gone, and Insider Monkey is again at the forefront when it comes to making use of this gold mine of data. Insider Monkey finished processing 887 13F filings submitted by hedge funds and prominent investors. These filings show these funds’ portfolio positions as of December 31st, 2020. In this article we are going to take a look at smart money sentiment towards PTC Inc (NASDAQ:PTC).
Is PTC stock a buy or sell? The best stock pickers were taking a pessimistic view. The number of long hedge fund bets retreated by 1 lately. PTC Inc (NASDAQ:PTC) was in 38 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of December. The all time high for this statistic is 46. Our calculations also showed that PTC isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q4 rankings). There were 39 hedge funds in our database with PTC positions at the end of the third quarter.
Kevin Oram of Praesidium Investment Management Company
At Insider Monkey we leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, the House passed a landmark bill decriminalizing marijuana. So, we are checking out this under the radar cannabis stock right now. We go through lists like the 10 best battery stocks to buy to identify the next stock with 10x upside potential. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. You can subscribe to our free daily newsletter on our website. Keeping this in mind let’s take a glance at the key hedge fund action regarding PTC Inc (NASDAQ:PTC).
Do Hedge Funds Think PTC Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
Heading into the first quarter of 2021, a total of 38 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of -3% from one quarter earlier. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in PTC over the last 22 quarters. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings considerably (or already accumulated large positions).
More specifically, 40 North Management was the largest shareholder of PTC Inc (NASDAQ:PTC), with a stake worth $538.2 million reported as of the end of December. Trailing 40 North Management was Impax Asset Management, which amassed a stake valued at $340.2 million. Praesidium Investment Management Company, Alkeon Capital Management, and Rivulet Capital were also very fond of the stock, becoming one of the largest hedge fund holders of the company. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position 40 North Management allocated the biggest weight to PTC Inc (NASDAQ:PTC), around 16.22% of its 13F portfolio. Praesidium Investment Management Company is also relatively very bullish on the stock, dishing out 15.17 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to PTC.
Judging by the fact that PTC Inc (NASDAQ:PTC) has witnessed bearish sentiment from hedge fund managers, we can see that there is a sect of hedgies who were dropping their entire stakes by the end of the fourth quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Michael Lowenstein’s Kensico Capital cut the biggest stake of the 750 funds tracked by Insider Monkey, totaling close to $64.1 million in stock, and Michael R. Weisberg’s Crestwood Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund said goodbye to about $7.2 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 1 funds by the end of the fourth quarter.
Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to PTC Inc (NASDAQ:PTC). We will take a look at Avalara, Inc. (NYSE:AVLR), Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation (NYSE:WAB), Wix.Com Ltd (NASDAQ:WIX), Liberty Global plc (NASDAQ:LBTYA), Black Knight, Inc. (NYSE:BKI), Natura &Co Holding S.A. (NYSE:NTCO), and Sunrun Inc (NASDAQ:RUN). All of these stocks’ market caps resemble PTC’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| AVLR | 56 | 1313766 | 10 |
| WAB | 45 | 2348711 | 7 |
| WIX | 37 | 999707 | 1 |
| LBTYA | 36 | 1123404 | 1 |
| BKI | 44 | 994940 | 3 |
| NTCO | 4 | 82302 | 0 |
| RUN | 48 | 3008231 | 19 |
| Average | 38.6 | 1410152 | 5.9 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 38.6 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1410 million. That figure was $1803 million in PTC’s case. Avalara, Inc. (NYSE:AVLR) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Natura &Co Holding S.A. (NYSE:NTCO) is the least popular one with only 4 bullish hedge fund positions. PTC Inc (NASDAQ:PTC) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for PTC is 61.5. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. Our calculations showed that top 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 81.2% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 26 percentage points. These stocks gained 5.3% in 2021 through March 19th and still beat the market by 0.8 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on PTC as the stock returned 8.4% since the end of the fourth quarter (through 3/19) and outperformed the market by an even larger margin.
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
