Annaly Capital Management, Inc. (NLY) Hedge Funds Are Snapping Up

As aggregate interest increased, key money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Soros Fund Management assembled the most outsized position in Annaly Capital Management, Inc. (NYSE:NLY). Soros Fund Management had $5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Richard Driehaus’ Driehaus Capital also made a $2.9 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Peter Muller’s PDT Partners, Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital, and Michael Platt and William Reeves’ BlueCrest Capital Mgmt..

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Annaly Capital Management, Inc. (NYSE:NLY). These stocks are Affiliated Managers Group, Inc. (NYSE:AMG), HollyFrontier Corp (NYSE:HFC), Pentair plc. Ordinary Share (NYSE:PNR), and Ultrapar Participacoes SA (ADR) (NYSE:UGP). This group of stocks’ market values is similar to Annaly Capital Management, Inc. (NYSE:NLY)’s market value.

As you can see, these stocks had an average of 26 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $684 million. That figure was $267 million in Annaly Capital Management, Inc. (NYSE:NLY)’s case. HollyFrontier Corp (NYSE:HFC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand, Ultrapar Participacoes SA (ADR) (NYSE:UGP) is the least popular one with only 6 bullish hedge fund positions. Annaly Capital Management, Inc. (NYSE:NLY) 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, HollyFrontier Corp (NYSE:HFC) might be a better candidate to consider a long position.