Is ICON plc – Ordinary Shares (ICLR) A Good Stock To Buy?

As aggregate interest increased, specific money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. PDT Partners, managed by Peter Muller, initiated the most outsized position in ICON plc – Ordinary Shares (NASDAQ:ICLR). PDT Partners had $10.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Richard Driehaus’ Driehaus Capital also made a $8.2 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new ICLR positions are Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Sahm Adrangi’s Kerrisdale Capital, and Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to ICON plc – Ordinary Shares (NASDAQ:ICLR). These stocks are Core Laboratories N.V. (NYSE:CLB), Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH), Brookdale Senior Living, Inc. (NYSE:BKD), and Ingram Micro Inc. (NYSE:IM). This group of stocks’ market valuations resemble ICLR’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 32 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $770 million. That figure was $224 million in ICLR’s case. Brookdale Senior Living, Inc. (NYSE:BKD) is the most popular stock in this table, while Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH) is the least popular one with only 10 bullish hedge fund positions. ICON plc – Ordinary Shares (NASDAQ:ICLR) 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 BKD might be a better candidate to consider a long position.