Do Hedge Funds Like Priceline.com Inc (PCLN)?

Seeing as Priceline.com Inc (NASDAQ:PCLN) has experienced declining sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s safe to say that there lies a certain “tier” of money managers that elected to cut their positions entirely in the third quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Leon Cooperman’s Omega Advisors sold off the largest stake of all the hedgies followed by Insider Monkey, comprising about $142.3 million in stock, and Alok Agrawal’s Bloom Tree Partners was right behind this move, as the fund cut about $59.5 million worth of shares. These transactions are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 1 funds in the third quarter.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Priceline.com Inc (NASDAQ:PCLN) but similarly valued. These stocks are Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS), BHP Billiton plc (ADR) (NYSE:BBL), Simon Property Group, Inc (NYSE:SPG), and Colgate-Palmolive Company (NYSE:CL). This group of stocks’ market valuations match PCLN’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 32 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1.38 billion. That figure was $7.23 billion in PCLN’s case. Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) is the most popular stock in this table with a total of 50 funds holding long positions. On the other hand BHP Billiton plc (ADR) (NYSE:BBL) is the least popular one with only 14 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Priceline.com Inc (NASDAQ:PCLN) is more popular among hedge funds. Considering that hedge funds are fond of this stock in relation to its market cap peers, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and potentially include it in your portfolio.