Is Crown Castle International Corp. (CCI) a Good Stock To Buy?

Due to the fact that Crown Castle International Corp. (NYSE:CCI) has faced a decline in interest from hedge fund managers, it’s easy to see that there lies a certain “tier” of hedgies that slashed their positions entirely last quarter. Andrew Immerman and Jeremy Schiffman’s Palestra Capital Management cut the largest position of the 700 funds monitored by Insider Monkey, valued at about $57 million, and Daniel S. Och’s OZ Management was right behind this move, as the fund cut about $33.9 million worth of shares.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Crown Castle International Corp. (NYSE:CCI). These stocks are Canadian Natural Resource Ltd (USA) (NYSE:CNQ), Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM), Estee Lauder Companies Inc (NYSE:EL), and Emerson Electric Co. (NYSE:EMR). This group of stocks’ market caps resemble CCI’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 30 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1.40 billion. That figure was $1.96 billion in CCI’s case. Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) is the most popular stock in this table with 42 funds holding shares. On the other hand Canadian Natural Resource Ltd (USA) (NYSE:CNQ) is the least popular one with only 21 bullish hedge fund positions. Crown Castle International Corp. (NYSE:CCI) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) might be a better candidate to consider a long position.