Hedge Funds Are Dumping Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (MLM)

Judging by the fact that Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) has witnessed declining sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s easy to see that there were a few hedge funds who sold off their full holdings heading into Q4. At the top of the heap, Jean-Marie Eveillard’s First Eagle Investment Management dropped the largest investment of all the hedgies monitored by Insider Monkey, worth an estimated $267.6 million in stock, and Bruce Kovner’s Caxton Associates LP was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $35.4 million worth of MLM shares. These transactions are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 2 funds heading into Q4.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM). These stocks are Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA), Centene Corp (NYSE:CNC), Tractor Supply Company (NASDAQ:TSCO), and Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADSK). This group of stocks’ market caps are similar to MLM’s market cap.

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 $1.92 billion. That figure was $1.22 billion in MLM’s case. Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADSK) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Centene Corp (NYSE:CNC) is the least popular one with only 22 bullish hedge fund positions. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) 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 ADSK might be a better candidate to consider a long position.

Disclosure: none.