Is Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. (CBRL) A Good Stock To Buy?

Judging by the fact that Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBRL) has faced bearish sentiment from hedge fund managers, we can see that there is a sect of money managers who were dropping their entire stakes in the third quarter. Intriguingly, Peter Muller’s PDT Partners unloaded to the biggest investment of the 700 funds watched by Insider Monkey, comprising an estimated $4.8 million in stock. D. E. Shaw’s fund, D E Shaw, also said goodbye to its stock, about $2.5 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by three funds in the third quarter.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBRL) but similarly valued. These stocks are Office Depot Inc (NYSE:ODP), Clovis Oncology Inc (NASDAQ:CLVS), Rackspace Hosting, Inc. (NYSE:RAX), and Blue Buffalo Pet Products Inc (NASDAQ:BUFF). This group of stocks’ market valuations match CBRL’s market valuation.

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 $737 million. That figure was just $85 million in CBRL’s case. Office Depot Inc (NYSE:ODP) is the most popular stock in this table, while Blue Buffalo Pet Products Inc (NASDAQ:BUFF) is the least popular one with only 24 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBRL) is even less popular than BUFF. 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.