Hedge Funds Are Crazy About Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV)

Consequently, some big names were breaking ground themselves. Point72 Asset Management, managed by Steve Cohen, initiated the largest position in Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) and had $54.7 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Anand Parekh’s Alyeska Investment Group also made a $30 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new LUV positions are Gregg Moskowitz’s Interval Partners, Robert Pohly’s Samlyn Capital, and Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV). We will take a look at Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX), China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited (ADR) (NYSE:CHU), CSX Corporation (NYSE:CSX), and Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ABX). This group of stocks’ market caps are closest to LUV’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 38 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1.71 billion. That figure was $2.29 billion in LUV’s case. Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited (ADR) (NYSE:CHU) is the least popular one with only 12 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) is more popular among hedge funds. Considering that hedge funds are fond of this stock in relation to its market cap peers, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and potentially include it in your portfolio.