Hedge Funds Are Buying Sprouts Farmers Market Inc (SFM)

As one would reasonably expect, key money managers have been driving this bullishness. Balyasny Asset Management, managed by Dmitry Balyasny, assembled the biggest position in Sprouts Farmers Market Inc (NASDAQ:SFM). By the end of September, the fund had $30.3 million invested in the company. Vivek Mehta and Aaron Husock’s ShearLink Capital also made a $16.8 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new SFM investors: Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management, Noam Gottesman’s GLG Partners, and Mike Masters’s Masters Capital Management.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Sprouts Farmers Market Inc (NASDAQ:SFM). We will take a look at Two Harbors Investment Corp (NYSE:TWO), Cleco Corporation (NYSE:CNL), Gulfport Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:GPOR), and Cabelas Inc (NYSE:CAB). This group of stocks’ market caps match SFM’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 24 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $397 million. That figure was $301 million in SFM’s case. Gulfport Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:GPOR) is leading the pack, while Cleco Corporation (NYSE:CNL) is the least popular one with only 16 bullish hedge fund positions. Sprouts Farmers Market Inc (NASDAQ:SFM) 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 GPOR might be a better candidate to consider a long position.