Our extensive research has shown that imitating the smart money can generate significant returns for retail investors, which is why we track more than 700 prominent money managers and analyze their quarterly 13F filings. The stocks that are heavily bought by hedge funds historically outperformed the market, though there is no shortage of high profile failures like hedge funds’ recent losses in Facebook. Let’s take a closer look at what the funds we track think about NV5 Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVEE) in this article.
NV5 Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVEE) was in 13 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2018. NVEE has seen an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds recently. There were 8 hedge funds in our database with NVEE positions at the end of the previous quarter. Our calculations also showed that nvee isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.
Why do we pay any attention at all to hedge fund sentiment? Our research has shown that hedge funds’ large-cap stock picks indeed failed to beat the market between 1999 and 2016. However, we were able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that outperformed the market by 18 percentage points since May 2014 through December 3, 2018 (see the details here). We were also able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that’ll significantly underperform the market. We have been tracking and sharing the list of these stocks since February 2017 and they lost 24% through December 3, 2018. That’s why we believe hedge fund sentiment is an extremely useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.
We’re going to take a peek at the new hedge fund action regarding NV5 Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVEE).
How are hedge funds trading NV5 Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVEE)?
At Q3’s end, a total of 13 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 63% from the second quarter of 2018. By comparison, 10 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in NVEE heading into this year. So, let’s find out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
More specifically, Manatuck Hill Partners was the largest shareholder of NV5 Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVEE), with a stake worth $17.9 million reported as of the end of September. Trailing Manatuck Hill Partners was Driehaus Capital, which amassed a stake valued at $17.7 million. Royce & Associates, Cruiser Capital Advisors, and AlphaOne Capital Partners were also very fond of the stock, giving the stock large weights in their portfolios.
As aggregate interest increased, key money managers have been driving this bullishness. Skylands Capital, managed by Charles Paquelet, initiated the most outsized position in NV5 Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVEE). Skylands Capital had $0.7 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP also initiated a $0.4 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new NVEE positions are Gavin Saitowitz and Cisco J. del Valle’s Springbok Capital and Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management.
Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to NV5 Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVEE). These stocks are PJT Partners Inc (NYSE:PJT), Quad/Graphics, Inc. (NYSE:QUAD), Alamo Group, Inc. (NYSE:ALG), and GoPro Inc (NASDAQ:GPRO). This group of stocks’ market values match NVEE’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| PJT | 17 | 135029 | 2 |
| QUAD | 13 | 29317 | 1 |
| ALG | 13 | 199431 | 0 |
| GPRO | 14 | 101985 | 0 |
| Average | 14.25 | 116441 | 0.75 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 14.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $116 million. That figure was $54 million in NVEE’s case. PJT Partners Inc (NYSE:PJT) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Quad/Graphics, Inc. (NYSE:QUAD) is the least popular one with only 13 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks NV5 Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVEE) is even less popular than QUAD. 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. This isn’t necessarily bad news. Although it is possible that hedge funds may think the stock is overpriced and view the stock as a short candidate, they may not be very familiar with the bullish thesis. In either case more research is warranted.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
