Do Hedge Funds Love Alleghany Corporation (Y)?

Due to the fact that Alleghany Corporation (NYSE:Y) has faced a bearish sentiment from the smart money, it’s easy to see that there was a specific group of hedgies who sold off their entire stakes in the third quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Greg Poole’s Echo Street Capital Management cut the biggest position of the “upper crust” of funds watched by Insider Monkey, totaling an estimated $12.4 million in stock. Ron Bobman’s fund, Capital Returns Management, also sold off its stock, about $8.4 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 3 funds in the third quarter.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Alleghany Corporation (NYSE:Y) but similarly valued. These stocks are Global Payments Inc (NYSE:GPN), Sabre Corp (NASDAQ:SABR), News Corp (NASDAQ:NWS), and Leucadia National Corp. (NYSE:LUK). All of these stocks’ market caps are similar to Alleghany Corporation (NYSE:Y)’s market cap.

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 $637 million. That figure was $865 million in Alleghany Corporation (NYSE:Y)’s case. Sabre Corp (NASDAQ:SABR) is the most popular stock in this table, whereas News Corp (NASDAQ:NWS) is the least popular one. Alleghany Corporation (NYSE:Y) 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, Sabre Corp (NASDAQ:SABR) might be a better candidate to consider a long position.