Do Hedge Funds Love Sohu.com Inc (SOHU)?

Judging by the fact that Sohu.com Inc (NASDAQ:SOHU) has experienced a declination in interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, logic holds that there lies a certain “tier” of money managers who sold off their full holdings heading into Q4. At the top of the heap, Kerr Neilson’s Platinum Asset Management sold off the largest stake of the 700 funds tracked by Insider Monkey, comprising an estimated $43.2 million in stock. Rob Citrone’s fund, Discovery Capital Management, also dumped its stock, about $33.6 million worth. These moves are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest fell by 6 funds heading into Q4.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Sohu.com Inc (NASDAQ:SOHU). We will take a look at Celestica Inc. (USA) (NYSE:CLS), Old National Bancorp (NASDAQ:ONB), KapStone Paper and Packaging Corp. (NYSE:KS), and Carrizo Oil & Gas, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRZO). This group of stocks’ market valuations are similar to SOHU’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 16.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $89 million. That figure was $437 million in SOHU’s case. KapStone Paper and Packaging Corp. (NYSE:KS) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Old National Bancorp (NASDAQ:ONB) is the least popular one with only 8 bullish hedge fund positions. Sohu.com Inc (NASDAQ:SOHU) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard, KS might be a better candidate to consider a long position.