Hedge Funds Aren’t Crazy About Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen Inc (PLKI) Anymore

Since Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen Inc (NASDAQ:PLKI) has faced bearish sentiment from hedge fund managers, logic holds that there exists a select few fund managers that slashed their positions entirely last quarter. Intriguingly, Gregory Bylinsky and Jefferson Gramm’s Bandera Partners cut the largest position of the “upper crust” of funds tracked by Insider Monkey, totaling an estimated $6.4 million in stock, and Richard Chilton’s Chilton Investment Company was right behind this move, as the fund said goodbye to about $3 million worth of shares. These bearish behaviors are important to note, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 3 funds last quarter.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen Inc (NASDAQ:PLKI). These stocks are 3D Systems Corporation (NYSE:DDD), WD-40 Company (NASDAQ:WDFC), RingCentral Inc (NYSE:RNG), and Amedisys Inc (NASDAQ:AMED). This group of stocks’ market values are closest to PLKI’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 18 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $143 million, close to the $149 million figure in PLKI’s case. RingCentral Inc (NYSE:RNG) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand WD-40 Company (NASDAQ:WDFC) is the least popular one with only 7 bullish hedge fund positions. Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen Inc (NASDAQ:PLKI) 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 RNG might be a better candidate to consider a long position.