What Do Hedge Funds Think of Starwood Property Trust, Inc. (STWD)?

As aggregate interest increased, key money managers have been driving this bullishness. PDT Partners, managed by Peter Muller, assembled the most outsized position in Starwood Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:STWD). PDT Partners had $1.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management also initiated a $0.8 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new STWD positions are D E Shaw, Mike Vranos’s Ellington, and David Costen Haley’s HBK Investments.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Starwood Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:STWD). We will take a look at Southwestern Energy Company (NYSE:SWN), Pinnacle Foods Inc (NYSE:PF), Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK), and RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:RNR). This group of stocks’ market values are similar to STWD’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 32 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $810 million. That figure was $509 million in STWD’s case. Southwestern Energy Company (NYSE:SWN) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:RNR) is the least popular one with only 19 bullish hedge fund positions. Starwood Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE:STWD) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard SWN might be a better candidate to consider a long position.