Do Hedge Funds Love OMNOVA Solutions Inc. (OMN)?

As industrywide interest jumped, key hedge funds were breaking ground themselves. Bryn Mawr Capital, managed by Ken Gray and Steve Walsh, created the largest position in OMNOVA Solutions Inc. (NYSE:OMN). Bryn Mawr Capital had $0.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Chao Ku’s Nine Chapters Capital Management also made an $0.1 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The only other fund with a brand new OMN position is Gavin Saitowitz and Cisco J. del Valle’s Springbok Capital.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as OMNOVA Solutions Inc. (NYSE:OMN) but similarly valued. These stocks are Oclaro, Inc. (NASDAQ:OCLR), Tucows Inc. (USA) (NASDAQ:TCX), Westmoreland Coal Company (NASDAQ:WLB), and Territorial Bancorp Inc (NASDAQ:TBNK). This group of stocks’ market valuations resemble OMN’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 13 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $50 million. That figure was $16 million in OMN’s case. Westmoreland Coal Company (NASDAQ:WLB) is the most popular stock in this table with a total of 19 funds reporting long positions. On the other hand Territorial Bancorp Inc (NASDAQ:TBNK) is the least popular one with only 8 bullish hedge fund positions. OMNOVA Solutions Inc. (NYSE:OMN) 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 WLB might be a better candidate to consider a long position.