Is TechTarget Inc (NASDAQ:TTGT) a good investment right now? We check hedge fund and billionaire investor sentiment before delving into hours of research. Hedge funds spend millions of dollars on Ivy League graduates, expert networks, and get tips from industry insiders. They sometimes fail miserably but historically their consensus stock picks outperformed the market after adjusting for known risk factors.
TechTarget Inc (NASDAQ:TTGT) investors should be aware of an increase in hedge fund sentiment recently. TTGT was in 15 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. There were 14 hedge funds in our database with TTGT holdings at the end of the previous quarter. Our calculations also showed that ttgt 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.
Let’s view the new hedge fund action regarding TechTarget Inc (NASDAQ:TTGT).
What does the smart money think about TechTarget Inc (NASDAQ:TTGT)?
Heading into the fourth quarter of 2018, a total of 15 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 7% from the previous quarter. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards TTGT over the last 13 quarters. So, let’s review which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
Among these funds, Nine Ten Partners held the most valuable stake in TechTarget Inc (NASDAQ:TTGT), which was worth $33.2 million at the end of the third quarter. On the second spot was Renaissance Technologies which amassed $25.3 million worth of shares. Moreover, Citadel Investment Group, GLG Partners, and Two Sigma Advisors were also bullish on TechTarget Inc (NASDAQ:TTGT), allocating a large percentage of their portfolios to this stock.
As aggregate interest increased, some big names have jumped into TechTarget Inc (NASDAQ:TTGT) headfirst. Laurion Capital Management, managed by Benjamin A. Smith, assembled the most outsized position in TechTarget Inc (NASDAQ:TTGT). Laurion Capital Management had $0.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Israel Englander’s Millennium Management also made a $0.7 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new TTGT positions are Andrew Feldstein and Stephen Siderow’s Blue Mountain Capital, Jeffrey Talpins’s Element Capital Management, and Gavin Saitowitz and Cisco J. del Valle’s Springbok Capital.
Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to TechTarget Inc (NASDAQ:TTGT). These stocks are Foundation Building Materials, Inc. (NYSE:FBM), Ciner Resources LP (NYSE:CINR), Civitas Solutions Inc (NYSE:CIVI), and Covenant Transportation Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CVTI). This group of stocks’ market values are similar to TTGT’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| FBM | 8 | 17215 | 0 |
| CINR | 2 | 8039 | 0 |
| CIVI | 12 | 55693 | 0 |
| CVTI | 18 | 38702 | 0 |
| Average | 10 | 29912 | 0 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 10 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $30 million. That figure was $88 million in TTGT’s case. Covenant Transportation Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CVTI) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Ciner Resources LP (NYSE:CINR) is the least popular one with only 2 bullish hedge fund positions. TechTarget Inc (NASDAQ:TTGT) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard CVTI might be a better candidate to consider a long position.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
