A whopping number of 13F filings filed with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has been processed by Insider Monkey so that individual investors can look at the overall hedge fund sentiment towards the stocks included in their watchlists. These freshly-submitted public filings disclose money managers’ equity positions as of the end of the three-month period that ended September 30, so let’s proceed with the discussion of the hedge fund sentiment on 51job, Inc. (NASDAQ:JOBS)(ADR) .

51job, Inc. has experienced an increase in hedge fund interest of late. There were 6 hedge funds in our database with JOBS holdings at the end of September. The level and the change in hedge fund popularity aren’t the only variables you need to analyze to decipher hedge funds’ perspectives. A stock may witness a boost in popularity but it may still be less popular than similarly priced stocks. That’s why at the end of this article we will examine companies such as Argan, Inc. (NYSEAMEX:AGX), FelCor Lodging Trust Incorporated (NYSE:FCH), and Cavco Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:CVCO) to gather more data points.

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.

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With all of this in mind, we’re going to take a peek at the fresh action regarding 51job..

How have hedgies been trading 51job?

Heading into the fourth quarter of 2016, a total of 6 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 50% from the second quarter of 2016. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards JOBS over the last 5 quarters. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings substantially (or already accumulated large positions).

According to our hedge fund database, Sensato Capital Management, led by Ernest Chow and Jonathan Howe, holds the biggest position in 51job. Sensato has a $15.8 million position in the stock, comprising 3.3% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Citadel Investment Group, led by Ken Griffin, which holds a $4.4 million position; the fund has less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedge funds and institutional investors with similar optimism comprise Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management, Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies, one of the largest hedge funds in the world, and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management. We should note that Sensato Capital Management is among our list of the 100 best performing hedge funds which is based on the performance of their 13F long positions in non-microcap stocks.

As industrywide interest jumped, specific money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Fisher Asset Management, led by Ken Fisher, initiated the biggest position in 51job. Fisher Asset Management had $2.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Israel Englander’s Millennium Management also initiated a $1.7 million position during the quarter. The only other fund with a new position in the stock is Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as 51job, but similarly valued. These stocks are Argan, Inc., FelCor Lodging Trust Incorporated, Cavco Industries, Inc., and Eros International plc (NYSE:EROS). All of these stocks’ market caps resemble JOBS’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 13.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $109 million. That figure was $27 million in JOBS’s case. Argan, Inc. is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Eros International plc is the least popular one with only 8 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks 51job is even less popular than EROS. 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.