New Jersey Resources Corp (NJR) Hedge Funds Are Snapping Up

As aggregate interest increased, some big names have jumped into New Jersey Resources Corp (NYSE:NJR) headfirst. Citadel Investment Group established the biggest position in New Jersey Resources and reportedly had $3.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Coe Capital Management also initiated a $2.4 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new NJR investors: Jonathan Barrett and Paul Segal’s Luminus Management and Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as New Jersey Resources Corp (NYSE:NJR) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Seritage Growth Properties (NYSE:SRG), The Wendy’s Company (NASDAQ:WEN), Eldorado Gold Corp (USA) (NYSE:EGO), and MB Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:MBFI). This group of stocks’ market values are similar to NJR’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 17 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $374 million. That figure was $88 million in NJR’s case. Seritage Growth Properties (NYSE:SRG) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand MB Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:MBFI) is the least popular one with only 11 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks New Jersey Resources Corp (NYSE:NJR) is even less popular than MBFI. 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.

Disclosure: None