Hedge fund managers David Einhorn and Bill Ackman get much of the media attention, but some lower-profile managers are performing better.
CNBC used Symmetric.io, a hedge fund tracking firm, to find the best under-the-radar managers and which stocks they recently bought, according to filings.
Four times a year, hedge funds report their holdings to the SEC, and the information is released to the public 45 days after each quarter ends.
With the recently released September quarter filing data, Symmetric.io graded the stock-picking ability of more than 1,000 hedge funds in its database with a proprietary indicator called StockAlpha. It is derived by comparing the performance of equities in the fund to that of a sector ETF.
Here are the top five stock-picking hedge funds measured by StockAlpha, many of them run by managers who are not household names.
Some investors focus on the stocks in which funds are taking new positions because it may mean the managers see an overlooked opportunity.
Here are some new stock additions from the top five stock pickers.