Here is What Hedge Funds Think About El Pollo LoCo Holdings Inc (LOCO)

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As industrywide interest jumped, key money managers have been driving this bullishness. Portolan Capital Management established the most valuable position in El Pollo LoCo Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LOCO). Portolan Capital Management had $1.7 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Mike Vranos’s Ellington also initiated an $0.2 million position during the quarter. The only other fund with a new position in the stock is Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to El Pollo LoCo Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LOCO). These stocks are Metro Bancorp Inc (NASDAQ:METR), Concert Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:CNCE), Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN), and The Hackett Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:HCKT). This group of stocks’ market caps match El Pollo LoCo Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LOCO)’s market cap.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
METR 9 38357 2
CNCE 13 80424 2
HWKN 6 58860 0
HCKT 20 37959 7

As you can see, these stocks had an average of 12 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $54 million. That figure was $14 million in El Pollo LoCo Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LOCO)’s case. The Hackett Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:HCKT) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand, Hawkins, Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN) is the least popular one with only 6 bullish hedge fund positions. El Pollo LoCo Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LOCO) 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, the Hackett Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:HCKT) might be a better candidate to consider a long position.

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