Is It Time to Invest in American Water Works Company Inc (AWK)?

As industry-wide interest jumped, specific money managers were breaking ground themselves. Luminus Management, managed by Jonathan Barrett and Paul Segal, created the largest position in American Water Works Company Inc (NYSE:AWK). Luminus Management had $15 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors also initiated a $6.4 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are George Hall’s Clinton Group, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, and David Costen Haley’s HBK Investments.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as American Water Works Company Inc (NYSE:AWK) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Energy Transfer Equity, L.P. (NYSE:ETE), Incyte Corporation (NASDAQ:INCY), Rockwell Automation (NYSE:ROK), and Essex Property Trust Inc (NYSE:ESS). All of these stocks’ market caps match AWK’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 28 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1.18 billion. That figure was $404 million in AWK’s case. Incyte Corporation (NASDAQ:INCY) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Essex Property Trust Inc (NYSE:ESS) is the least popular one with only 19 bullish hedge fund positions. American Water Works Company Inc (NYSE:AWK) 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 INCY might be a better candidate to consider a long position in.

Disclosure: None