Is ENSCO PLC (ESV) A Good Stock To Buy?

As aggregate interest increased, some big names were leading the bulls’ herd. Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, assembled the biggest call position in ENSCO PLC (NYSE:ESV). The fund had $10.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. George Hall’s Clinton Group also initiated a $8.8 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new ESV investors: Peter Muller’s PDT Partners, Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, and Ken Gray and Steve Walsh’s Bryn Mawr Capital.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to ENSCO PLC (NYSE:ESV). These stocks are First Horizon National Corporation (NYSE:FHN), AngloGold Ashanti Limited (ADR) (NYSE:AU), American Capital Ltd. (NASDAQ:ACAS), and RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ). All of these stocks’ market caps match ESV’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 19 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $468 million. That figure was $298 million in ESV’s case. American Capital Ltd. (NASDAQ:ACAS) is the most popular stock in this table, while  RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE:RLJ) is limping behind with only 9 bullish hedge fund positions. ENSCO PLC (NYSE:ESV) 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 ACAS might be a better candidate to consider a long position.