Is Middleby Corp (MIDD) A Good Stock To Buy?

Page 2 of 2

Consequently, key hedge funds were breaking ground themselves. BlueCrest Capital Mgmt., led by Michael Platt and William Reeves, created the biggest position in Middleby Corp (NASDAQ:MIDD). According to its latest 13F filing, the fund had $6.7 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Ben Levine, Andrew Manuel and Stefan Renold’s LMR Partners also initiated a $6.7 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new MIDD investors: Ken Heebner’s Capital Growth Management, Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management, and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Middleby Corp (NASDAQ:MIDD) but similarly valued. These stocks are DDR Corp (NYSE:DDR), EnCana Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ECA), DexCom, Inc. (NASDAQ:DXCM), and New Oriental Education & Tech Grp (ADR) (NYSE:EDU). All of these stocks’ market caps are closest to MIDD’s market cap.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
DDR 18 207446 2
ECA 37 2159354 11
DXCM 26 300295 1
EDU 20 288666 0

As you can see these stocks had an average of 25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $739 million. That figure was $345 million in MIDD’s case. EnCana Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ECA) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand DDR Corp (NYSE:DDR) is the least popular one with only 18 bullish hedge fund positions. Middleby Corp (NASDAQ:MIDD) 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 ECA might be a better candidate to consider a long position.

Disclosure: none.

Page 2 of 2