As industrywide interest jumped, some big names were leading the bulls’ herd. Balyasny Asset Management, managed by Dmitry Balyasny, created the most outsized position in PDC Energy Inc (NASDAQ:PDCE). Balyasny Asset Management had $12.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Nathaniel August’s Mangrove Partners also initiated a $8.2 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new PDCE investors: Jacob Gottlieb’s Visium Asset Management, Lawrence Sapanski’s Scoria Capital, and Cliff Asness’ AQR Capital Management.
Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to PDC Energy Inc (NASDAQ:PDCE). We will take a look at Groupon Inc (NASDAQ:GRPN), J&J Snack Foods Corp. (NASDAQ:JJSF), NRG Yield, Inc. Class C (NYSE:NYLD), and Esterline Technologies Corporation (NYSE:ESL). This group of stocks’ market valuations are closest to PDCE’s market valuation.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| GRPN | 26 | 135591 | -8 |
| JJSF | 9 | 63918 | 2 |
| NYLD | 31 | 277988 | -2 |
| ESL | 21 | 443595 | -1 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 21.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $230 million. That figure was $362 million in PDCE’s case. NRG Yield, Inc. Class C (NYSE:NYLD) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand J&J Snack Foods Corp. (NASDAQ:JJSF) is the least popular one with only 9 bullish hedge fund positions. PDC Energy Inc (NASDAQ:PDCE) 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 NYLD might be a better candidate to consider a long position.
