Hedge Funds Taking a Cautious Approach With Mine Safety Appliances (MSA)

As industrywide interest jumped, specific money managers have been driving this bullishness. Arrowstreet Capital, managed by Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell, created the biggest position in Mine Safety Appliances (NYSE:MSA). Arrowstreet Capital had $1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Paul Tudor Jones’ Tudor Investment Corp also initiated a $0.7 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management, Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP, and Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Mine Safety Appliances (NYSE:MSA) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IRWD), The E.W. Scripps Company (NYSE:SSP), El Paso Electric Company (NYSE:EE), and Colliers International Group Inc (NASDAQ:CIGI). All of these stocks’ market caps match MSA’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 11 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $153 million. That figure was $41 million in MSA’s case. Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IRWD) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand The E.W. Scripps Company (NYSE:SSP) is the least popular one with only 9 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Mine Safety Appliances (NYSE:MSA) is more popular among hedge funds, although the amount of money invested in it is less than any of the other companies. As we’d rather invest in companies that hedge funds are piling on and also pouring money into, IRWD may be a better candidate to consider a long position in at this time.