Is National Fuel Gas Co. (NFG) a Good Buy?

Consequently, key hedge funds have been driving this bullishness. Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, created the most outsized call position in National Fuel Gas Co. (NYSE:NFG). Millennium Management had $14.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Israel Englander’s Millennium Management also made a $11.6 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new NFG positions are Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management, Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management, and Andrew Feldstein and Stephen Siderow’s Blue Mountain Capital.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as National Fuel Gas Co. (NYSE:NFG) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Western Refining, Inc. (NYSE:WNR), Chicago Bridge & Iron Company N.V. (NYSE:CBI), Trimble Navigation Limited (NASDAQ:TRMB), and Genesis Energy, L.P. (NYSE:GEL). This group of stocks’ market valuations resemble NFG’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 22.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $350 million. That figure was $456 million in NFG’s case. Western Refining, Inc. (NYSE:WNR) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Genesis Energy, L.P. (NYSE:GEL) is the least popular one with only 7 bullish hedge fund positions. National Fuel Gas Co. (NYSE:NFG) 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 WNR might be a better candidate to consider a long position.