The Insider Monkey team has completed processing the quarterly 13F filings for the September quarter submitted by the hedge funds and other money managers included in our extensive database. Most hedge funds have been producing disappointing net returns in recent years, however that was partly due to the poor performance of small-cap stocks in general. Well, small-cap stocks finally turned the corner and have been beating the large-cap stocks by more than 10 percentage points over the last 5 months.This means the relevancy of hedge funds’ public filings became inarguable, as they may reveal numerous high-potential stocks. The following article will discuss the smart money sentiment towards TASER International, Inc. (NASDAQ:TASR).
Is TASER International, Inc. (NASDAQ:TASR) ready to rally soon? The smart money is surely turning bullish. The number of long hedge fund investments improved by 2 recently. 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 United Community Banks Inc (NASDAQ:UCBI), Five Prime Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:FPRX), and Ramco-Gershenson Properties Trust (NYSE:RPT) to gather more data points.
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At Insider Monkey, we’ve developed an investment strategy that has delivered market-beating returns over the past 12 months. Our strategy identifies the 100 best-performing funds of the previous quarter from among the collection of 700+ successful funds that we track in our database, which we accomplish using our returns methodology. We then study the portfolios of those 100 funds using the latest 13F data to uncover the 30 most popular mid-cap stocks (market caps of between $1 billion and $10 billion) among them to hold until the next filing period. This strategy delivered 18% gains over the past 12 months, more than doubling the 8% returns enjoyed by the S&P 500 ETFs.
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How have hedgies been trading TASER International, Inc. (NASDAQ:TASR)?
At the end of the third quarter, a total of 12 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a 20% increase from the second quarter of 2016. On the other hand, there were a total of 10 hedge funds with a bullish position in TASR at the beginning of this year, also showing a 20% increase over that time. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).
According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Brian Ashford-Russell and Tim Woolley’s Polar Capital has the number one position in TASER International, Inc. (NASDAQ:TASR), worth close to $23.2 million. On Polar Capital’s heels is Driehaus Capital, led by Richard Driehaus, which holds a $6.7 million position. Remaining hedge funds and institutional investors that are bullish comprise Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP and Peter Muller’s PDT Partners. We should note that none of these hedge funds are 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.
Consequently, some big names were breaking ground themselves. Marshall Wace LLP, led by Paul Marshall and Ian Wace, assembled the largest position in TASER International, Inc. (NASDAQ:TASR). Marshall Wace LLP had $4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group also initiated a $3.4 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors, Frank Slattery’s Symmetry Peak Management, and Will Graves’ Boardman Bay Capital Management.
Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as TASER International, Inc. (NASDAQ:TASR) but similarly valued. We will take a look at United Community Banks Inc (NASDAQ:UCBI), Five Prime Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:FPRX), Ramco-Gershenson Properties Trust (NYSE:RPT), and Dean Foods Co (NYSE:DF). This group of stocks’ market values resemble TASR’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| UCBI | 12 | 106217 | -7 |
| FPRX | 20 | 216553 | -2 |
| RPT | 10 | 62556 | 2 |
| DF | 20 | 152108 | -1 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 16 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $134 million. That figure was $49 million in TASR’s case. Five Prime Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:FPRX) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Ramco-Gershenson Properties Trust (NYSE:RPT) is the least popular one with only 10 bullish hedge fund positions. TASER International, Inc. (NASDAQ:TASR) 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 FPRX might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.
Disclosure: None
