Is Interface, Inc. (TILE) A Good Stock To Buy?

Nina Todic

Sun, May 5, 2019, 11:44 AM

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Interface, Inc. (NASDAQ:TILE) investors should be aware of a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money lately. TILE was in 16 hedge funds' portfolios at the end of the fourth quarter of 2018. There were 17 hedge funds in our database with TILE positions at the end of the previous quarter. Our calculations also showed that tile isn't among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.

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We're going to go over the recent hedge fund action encompassing Interface, Inc. (NASDAQ:TILE).

What have hedge funds been doing with Interface, Inc. (NASDAQ:TILE)?

Heading into the first quarter of 2019, a total of 16 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of -6% from the previous quarter. On the other hand, there were a total of 20 hedge funds with a bullish position in TILE a year ago. So, let's find out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

The largest stake in Interface, Inc. (NASDAQ:TILE) was held by Ariel Investments, which reported holding $16 million worth of stock at the end of December. It was followed by D E Shaw with a $8.1 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included Royce & Associates, Balyasny Asset Management, and AQR Capital Management.

Because Interface, Inc. (NASDAQ:TILE) has faced a decline in interest from hedge fund managers, it's easy to see that there is a sect of money managers that decided to sell off their entire stakes heading into Q3. Interestingly, Noam Gottesman's GLG Partners cut the largest investment of the "upper crust" of funds watched by Insider Monkey, totaling an estimated $10.2 million in stock, and Brandon Haley's Holocene Advisors was right behind this move, as the fund cut about $0.8 million worth. These transactions are interesting, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 1 funds heading into Q3.

Let's go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Interface, Inc. (NASDAQ:TILE). We will take a look at TPI Composites, Inc. (NASDAQ:TPIC), Laredo Petroleum Inc (NYSE:LPI), The Gorman-Rupp Company (NYSE:GRC), and The Andersons, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANDE). This group of stocks' market valuations resemble TILE's market valuation.

[table] Ticker, No of HFs with positions, Total Value of HF Positions (x1000), Change in HF Position TPIC,13,89898,-4 LPI,14,195611,-6 GRC,7,34299,-2 ANDE,6,47316,-2 Average,10,91781,-3.5 [/table]

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 $92 million. That figure was $59 million in TILE's case. Laredo Petroleum Inc (NYSE:LPI) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand The Andersons, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANDE) is the least popular one with only 6 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Interface, Inc. (NASDAQ:TILE) is more popular among hedge funds. Our calculations showed that top 15 most popular stocks) among hedge funds returned 24.2% through April 22nd and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by more than 7 percentage points. Hedge funds were also right about betting on TILE, though not to the same extent, as the stock returned 17.4% and outperformed the market as well.

Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.

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