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 gigantic failures like hedge funds’ recent losses in Valeant. Let’s take a closer look at what the funds we track think about US Ecology Inc. (NASDAQ:ECOL) in this article.
Is US Ecology Inc. (NASDAQ:ECOL) undervalued? Prominent investors are becoming hopeful. The number of bullish hedge fund bets moved up by 5 in recent months. ECOL was in 12 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2015. There were 7 hedge funds in our database with ECOL holdings at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of this article we will also compare ECOL to other stocks including Callidus Software Inc. (NASDAQ:CALD), Cabot Microelectronics Corporation (NASDAQ:CCMP), and Fifth Street Finance Corp. (NASDAQ:FSC) to get a better sense of its popularity.
Follow Us Ecology Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:ECOL)
Follow Us Ecology Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:ECOL)
Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a look at the key action regarding US Ecology Inc. (NASDAQ:ECOL).
How are hedge funds trading US Ecology Inc. (NASDAQ:ECOL)?
At the end of the third quarter, a total of 12 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 71% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes significantly (or already accumulated large positions).
According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Bares Capital Management, managed by Brian Bares, holds the number one position in US Ecology Inc. (NASDAQ:ECOL). Bares Capital Management has an $60.4 million position in the stock, comprising 6% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Manor Road Capital Partners, managed by John Ku, which holds an $24 million position; 4.7% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other hedge funds and institutional investors that are bullish contain Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management and George McCabe’s Portolan Capital Management.
Consequently, key hedge funds have jumped into US Ecology Inc. (NASDAQ:ECOL) headfirst. Gotham Asset Management, managed by Joel Greenblatt, established the biggest position in US Ecology Inc. (NASDAQ:ECOL). Gotham Asset Management had $7.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. George McCabe’s Portolan Capital Management also initiated an $3.8 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new ECOL investors: Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management, and Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP.
Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as US Ecology Inc. (NASDAQ:ECOL) but similarly valued on the next page. We will take a look at Callidus Software Inc. (NASDAQ:CALD), Cabot Microelectronics Corporation (NASDAQ:CCMP), Fifth Street Finance Corp. (NASDAQ:FSC), and Amerisafe, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMSF). This group of stocks’ market caps resemble ECOL’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| CALD | 19 | 153048 | 0 |
| CCMP | 18 | 101790 | 0 |
| FSC | 10 | 25541 | -1 |
| AMSF | 11 | 18543 | 1 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 14.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $75 million. That figure was $115 million in ECOL’s case. Callidus Software Inc. (NASDAQ:CALD) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Fifth Street Finance Corp. (NASDAQ:FSC) is the least popular one with only 10 bullish hedge fund positions. US Ecology Inc. (NASDAQ:ECOL) 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 CALD might be a better candidate to consider a long position.
