Is Oceaneering International (OII) A Good Stock To Buy Right Now?

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Seeing as Oceaneering International (NYSE:OII) has experienced falling interest from hedge fund managers, we can see that there lies a certain “tier” of fund managers that slashed their entire stakes heading into Q4. At the top of the heap, Brian Taylor’s Pine River Capital Management cut the biggest investment of all the hedgies followed by Insider Monkey, comprising about $6.7 million in stock, and Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $5.4 million worth. These bearish behaviors are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 10 funds heading into Q4.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Oceaneering International (NYSE:OII) but similarly valued. We will take a look at ENSCO PLC (NYSE:ESV), National Beverage Corp. (NASDAQ:FIZZ), Prestige Brands Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PBH), and Metals USA Holdings Corp (NYSE:MUSA). This group of stocks’ market valuations are closest to OII’s market valuation.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
ESV 33 555953 3
FIZZ 20 146113 11
PBH 17 204942 -1
MUSA 19 169461 -4

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 $269 million. That figure was $166 million in OII’s case. ENSCO PLC (NYSE:ESV) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Prestige Brands Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PBH) is the least popular one with only 17 bullish hedge fund positions. Oceaneering International (NYSE:OII) 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 ESV might be a better candidate to consider a long position.

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