Do Hedge Funds Love Cenovus Energy Inc (USA) (CVE)?

Page 2 of 2

Judging by the fact that Cenovus Energy Inc (USA) (NYSE:CVE) has experienced declining sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s easy to see that there is a sect of funds who sold off their full holdings in the third quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Jonathon Jacobson’s Highfields Capital Management cut the largest investment of the 700 funds followed by Insider Monkey, worth an estimated $70 million in stock, and Alec Litowitz and Ross Laser’s Magnetar Capital was right behind this move, as the fund cut about $18.6 million worth of CVE shares. These transactions are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 4 funds in the third quarter.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Cenovus Energy Inc (USA) (NYSE:CVE) but similarly valued. These stocks are Citizens Financial Group Inc (NYSE:CFG), Genuine Parts Company (NYSE:GPC), Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK), and Enersis S.A. (ADR) (NYSE:ENI). This group of stocks’ market caps are closest to CVE’s market cap.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
CFG 56 1548901 18
GPC 23 391727 -4
VRSK 28 723625 -9
ENI 13 109050 0

As you can see these stocks had an average of 30 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $693 million. That figure was $725 million in CVE’s case. Citizens Financial Group Inc (NYSE:CFG) is the most popular stock in this table, whereas Enersis S.A. (ADR) (NYSE:ENI) is the laggard with only 13 bullish hedge fund positions. Cenovus Energy Inc (USA) (NYSE:CVE) 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 CFG might be a better candidate to consider a long position.

Page 2 of 2