How Intrexon Corp (XON) Stacks Up Against Its Peers

We already know that not all hedge funds are bullish on the stock and some hedge funds actually sold off their positions entirely. At the top of the heap, First Eagle Investment Management sold off the largest stake of all the hedgies studied by Insider Monkey, worth about $27.1 million in stock. Ken Griffin’s fund, Citadel Investment Group, also said goodbye to its call options, about $3.7 million worth.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Intrexon Corp (NYSE:XON) but similarly valued. These stocks are Tempur-Pedic International Inc. (NYSE:TPX), Molina Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:MOH), Umpqua Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:UMPQ), and Pandora Media Inc (NYSE:P). This group of stocks’ market caps are similar to XON’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 33 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $869 million. That figure was $158 million in XON’s case. Pandora Media Inc (NYSE:P) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Umpqua Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:UMPQ) is the least popular one with only 20 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Intrexon Corp (NYSE:XON) is even less popular than UMPQ. Considering that hedge funds aren’t fond of this stock in relation to other companies analyzed in this article, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and understand why the smart money isn’t behind this stock. This isn’t necessarily bad news. Although it is possible that hedge funds may think the stock is overpriced and view the stock as a short candidate, they may not be very familiar with the bullish thesis. In either case more research is warranted.