Is Valero Energy Corporation (VLO) a Good Stock To Buy?

We at Insider Monkey have gone over 742 13F filings that hedge funds and prominent investors are required to file by the government. The 13F filings show the funds’ and investors’ portfolio positions as of September 30. In this article, we look at what those funds think of Valero Energy Corporation (NYSE:VLO) based on that data.

Valero Energy Corporation (NYSE:VLO) shares did not see a lot of action during the third quarter and the hedge fund sentiment was unchanged. Overall 42 funds from our database held shares of the company at the end of September. At the end of this article we will also compare VLO to other stocks including Consolidated Edison, Inc. (NYSE:ED), Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. (NYSE:PEG), and Zoetis Inc (NYSE:ZTS) to get a better sense of its popularity.

At Insider Monkey, we’ve developed an investment strategy that has delivered market-beating returns over the past 12 months. 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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Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a glance at the key action surrounding Valero Energy Corporation (NYSE:VLO).

Hedge fund activity in Valero Energy Corporation (NYSE:VLO)

At the end of September, 42 funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, unchanged from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings significantly (or already accumulated large positions).

When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, AQR Capital Management, led by Cliff Asness, holds the biggest position in Valero Energy Corporation (NYSE:VLO). AQR Capital Management has a $238.7 million position in the stock, comprising 0.4% of its 13F portfolio. The second most bullish fund manager is Robert Pohly’s Samlyn Capital, which holds a $82.2 million position; 2% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining professional money managers that are bullish encompass David Harding’s Winton Capital Management, Zach Schreiber’s Point State Capital, and John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors.