You probably know from experience that there is not as much information on small-cap companies as there is on large companies. Of course, this makes it really hard and difficult for individual investors to make proper and accurate analysis of certain small-cap companies. However, well-known and successful hedge fund investors like Carl Icahn and George Soros hold the necessary resources and abilities to conduct an extensive stock analysis on small-cap stocks, which enable them to make millions of dollars by identifying potential winners within the small-cap galaxy of stocks. This represents the main reason why Insider Monkey takes notice of the hedge fund activity in these overlooked stocks.
Is Teladoc Inc (NYSE:TDOC) a worthy investment today? Investors who are in the know are definitely taking a bearish view. The number of long hedge fund positions shrank by 1 lately. TDOC was in 6 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. There were 7 hedge funds in our database with TDOC holdings at the end of June. At the end of this article we will also compare TDOC to other stocks including Meridian Interstate Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBSB), Energy Recovery, Inc. (NASDAQ:ERII), and Raven Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:RAVN) to get a better sense of its popularity.
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.
![doctor, white, up, cut, isolated, medical, view, arms, adult, out, stethoscope, only, people, caucasian, smiling, confidence, portrait, front, standing, mid, coat, men, at,](https://imonkey-blog.imgix.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/04024933/shutterstock_216398794-750x500.jpg?auto=fortmat&fit=clip&expires=1755993600&width=480&height=320)
Air Images/Shutterstock.com
How are hedge funds trading Teladoc Inc (NYSE:TDOC)?
At the end of the third quarter, a total of 6 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a fall of 14% from the previous quarter. On the other hand, there were a total of 14 hedge funds with a bullish position in TDOC at the beginning of October, so hedge fund ownership fell substantially over the following year. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes significantly (or already accumulated large positions).
Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Jerome Pfund and Michael Sjostrom’s Sectoral Asset Management holds the most valuable position in Teladoc Inc (NYSE:TDOC). Sectoral Asset Management has a $28.2 million position in the stock, comprising 2.8% of its 13F portfolio. On Sectoral Asset Management’s heels is Millennium Management, one of the 10 largest hedge funds in the world, with a $10 million position. Remaining professional money managers that are bullish include Justin John Ferayorni’s Tamarack Capital Management, Peter A. Wright’s P.A.W. CAPITAL PARTNERS, and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group. 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-micro-cap stocks.
We already know that not all hedge funds are bullish on the stock and some hedge funds actually cut their positions entirely. At the top of the heap, Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management cut the biggest stake of the 700 funds watched by Insider Monkey, valued at about $1.7 million in stock. Joseph Mathias’ fund, Concourse Capital Management, also sold off its stock, about $0.4 million worth.
Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Teladoc Inc (NYSE:TDOC). We will take a look at Meridian Interstate Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBSB), Energy Recovery, Inc. (NASDAQ:ERII), Raven Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:RAVN), and TCP Capital Corp (NASDAQ:TCPC). This group of stocks’ market caps match TDOC’s market cap.
Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
---|---|---|---|
EBSB | 13 | 112923 | -1 |
ERII | 16 | 34374 | 4 |
RAVN | 13 | 78194 | 4 |
TCPC | 6 | 7938 | -3 |
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 $58 million. That figure was $46 million in TDOC’s case. Energy Recovery, Inc. (NASDAQ:ERII) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand TCP Capital Corp (NASDAQ:TCPC) is the least popular one with only 6 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Teladoc Inc (NYSE:TDOC) is only as popular as TCPC. Considering that hedge funds aren’t fond of this stock in relation to other companies analyzed in this article, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and understand why the smart money isn’t behind this stock.
Disclosure: None