Is Helmerich & Payne, Inc. (HP) A Good Stock To Buy?

Hedge funds and other investment firms that we track manage billions of dollars of their wealthy clients’ money, and needless to say, they are painstakingly thorough when analyzing where to invest this money, as their own wealth depends on it. Regardless of the various methods used by elite investors like David Tepper and Dan Loeb, the resources they expend are second-to-none. This is especially valuable when it comes to small-cap stocks, which is where they generate their strongest outperformance, as their resources give them a huge edge when it comes to studying these stocks compared to the average investor, which is why we intently follow their activity in the small-cap space.

Helmerich & Payne, Inc. (NYSE:HP) was in 27 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2015. HP investors should be aware of an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds in recent months. There were 24 hedge funds in our database with HP holdings at the end of the previous quarter. The level and the change in hedge fund popularity aren’t the only variables you need to analyze to decipher hedge funds’ perspectives. A stock may witness a boost in popularity but it may still be less popular than similarly priced stocks. That’s why at the end of this article we will examine companies such as Genpact Limited (NYSE:G), ADT Corp (NYSE:ADT), and FireEye Inc (NASDAQ:FEYE) to gather more data points.

Follow Helmerich & Payne Inc. (NYSE:HP)

With all of this in mind, we’re going to take a look at the new action regarding Helmerich & Payne, Inc. (NYSE:HP).

How are hedge funds trading Helmerich & Payne, Inc. (NYSE:HP)?

At the end of the third quarter, a total of 27 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 13% from the second quarter. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings significantly (or already accumulated large positions).

According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Robert Rodriguez and Steven Romick’s First Pacific Advisors LLC has the biggest position in Helmerich & Payne, Inc. (NYSE:HP), worth close to $64.1 million, accounting for 0.6% of its total 13F portfolio. On First Pacific Advisors LLC’s heels is Royce & Associates, led by Chuck Royce, holding a $46.2 million position; the fund has 0.2% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedge funds and institutional investors that hold long positions encompass Ross Margolies’ Stelliam Investment Management, Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies and Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management.

Now, key hedge funds have jumped into Helmerich & Payne, Inc. (NYSE:HP) headfirst. Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, initiated the most valuable position in Helmerich & Payne, Inc. (NYSE:HP). Renaissance Technologies had $39.6 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management also made a $24.3 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new HP investors: Ron Gutfleish’s Elm Ridge Capital, Clint Murray’s Lodge Hill Capital, and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Helmerich & Payne, Inc. (NYSE:HP). These stocks are Genpact Limited (NYSE:G), ADT Corp (NYSE:ADT), FireEye Inc (NASDAQ:FEYE), and Edgewell Personal Care Company (NYSE:EPC). All of these stocks’ market caps are closest to HP’s market cap.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
G 17 375488 -5
ADT 22 210500 -6
FEYE 37 383976 2
EPC 34 749305 18

As you can see these stocks had an average of 27.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $430 million. That figure was $369 million in HP’s case. FireEye Inc (NASDAQ:FEYE) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Genpact Limited (NYSE:G) is the least popular one with only 17 bullish hedge fund positions. Helmerich & Payne, Inc. (NYSE:HP) 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 FEYE might be a better candidate to consider a long position.