Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD): The Most Popular Energy Stock Among Top Hedge Funds

Insider Monkey has processed numerous 13F filings of hedge funds and famous investors to create an extensive database of hedge fund holdings. The 13F filings show the hedge funds and investors’ positions as of the end of the third quarter. You can find write-ups about an individual hedge fund’s trades on several financial news websites. However, in this article we will take a look at their collective moves and analyze what the smart money thinks of Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD) based on that data.

Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD) was in 72 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. PXD has experienced a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money of late. There were 74 hedge funds in our database with PXD positions at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of this article we will also compare PXD to other stocks including CBS Corporation (NYSE:CBS), Ventas, Inc. (NYSE:VTR), and CRH PLC (ADR) (NYSE:CRH) to get a better sense of its popularity.

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What have hedge funds been doing with Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD)?

At Q3’s end, a total of 72 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a 3% dip from one quarter earlier. Nonetheless, it remained the most popular energy stock among the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings significantly (or already accumulated large positions).

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According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, SPO Advisory Corp, managed by John H. Scully, holds the largest position in Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD). SPO Advisory Corp has a $1.13 billion position in the stock, comprising 19.8% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, which holds a $367.7 million position. Remaining peers that are bullish comprise Ryan Pedlow’s Two Creeks Capital Management, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, and Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management.

Seeing as Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD) has witnessed declining sentiment from hedge fund managers, it’s safe to say that there is a sect of money managers that slashed their entire stakes last quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global dropped the biggest position of all the hedgies tracked by Insider Monkey, comprising about $206.9 million in stock. Stephen Mandel’s fund, Lone Pine Capital, also dumped its stock, about $201 million worth. These moves are important to note, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 2 funds last quarter.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD) but similarly valued. These stocks are CBS Corporation (NYSE:CBS), Ventas, Inc. (NYSE:VTR), CRH PLC (ADR) (NYSE:CRH), and DISH Network Corp. (NASDAQ:DISH). This group of stocks’ market values match PXD’s market value.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
CBS 56 2867072 -3
VTR 18 441525 3
CRH 8 83584 3
DISH 57 2963893 5

As you can see these stocks had an average of 34.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1.59 billion. That figure was $4.12 billion in PXD’s case. DISH Network Corp. (NASDAQ:DISH) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand CRH PLC (ADR) (NYSE:CRH) is the least popular one with only 8 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD) is more popular among hedge funds. Considering that hedge funds are fond of this stock in relation to its market cap peers, and that it also remains their top energy play, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and potentially include it in your portfolio.

Disclosure: None