Is Baytex Energy Corp (USA) (BTE) Worthy of Your Portfolio?

As industrywide interest jumped, key hedge funds have jumped into Baytex Energy Corp (USA) (NYSE:BTE) headfirst. D E Shaw assembled the biggest position in Baytex Energy Corp (USA) (NYSE:BTE). D E Shaw had $9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital also made a $4.5 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new BTE investors: Eric Sprott’s Sprott Asset Management, Alec Litowitz and Ross Laser’s Magnetar Capital, and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Baytex Energy Corp (USA) (NYSE:BTE). We will take a look at SJW Corp. (NYSE:SJW), 51job, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:JOBS), Argan, Inc. (NYSEAMEX:AGX), and FelCor Lodging Trust Incorporated (NYSE:FCH). This group of stocks’ market values resemble BTE’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 13 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $77 million. That figure was $24 million in BTE’s case. Argan, Inc. (NYSEAMEX:AGX) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand 51job, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:JOBS) is the least popular one with only 6 bullish hedge fund positions. Baytex Energy Corp (USA) (NYSE:BTE) 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 AGX might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: None