Is Noble Energy, Inc. (NBL) A Good Stock To Buy?

When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Eagle Capital Management, managed by Boykin Curry, holds the largest position in Noble Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NBL). Eagle Capital Management has a $463.8 million position in the stock, comprising 1.9% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson of Adage Capital Management, with a $331.1 million position; 0.9% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining professional money managers with similar optimism consist of Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Clint Carlson’s Carlson Capital and Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management.

Now, key hedge funds have been driving this bullishness. Kingdon Capital, managed by Mark Kingdon, created the largest position in Noble Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NBL). Kingdon Capital had $43.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Kenneth Tropin’s Graham Capital Management also made a $14.8 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new NBL investors: Marc Lisker, Glenn Fuhrman and John Phelan’s MSDC Management, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, and Charles Clough’s Clough Capital Partners.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Noble Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NBL) but similarly valued. These stocks are Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK), BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ:BMRN), CGI Group Inc. (USA) (NYSE:GIB), and Motorola Solutions Inc (NYSE:MSI). All of these stocks’ market caps match NBL’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 28.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1.1 billion. That figure was $1.74 billion in NBL’s case. BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ:BMRN) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand CGI Group Inc. (USA) (NYSE:GIB) is the least popular one with only 14 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Noble Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NBL) is more popular among hedge funds. Considering that hedge funds are fond of this stock in relation to its market cap peers, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and potentially include it in your portfolio.