Is Orbital ATK Inc (OA) A Good Stock To Buy?

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With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, specific money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Balyasny Asset Management, managed by Dmitry Balyasny, initiated the most outsized position in Orbital ATK Inc (NYSE:OA). Balyasny Asset Management had $19.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management also made a $11.2 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP, Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management, and Peter Muller’s PDT Partners.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Orbital ATK Inc (NYSE:OA). We will take a look at ICON plc – Ordinary Shares (NASDAQ:ICLR), Core Laboratories N.V. (NYSE:CLB), Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH), and Brookdale Senior Living, Inc. (NYSE:BKD). This group of stocks’ market caps are similar to OA’s market cap.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
ICLR 27 223656 4
CLB 21 134767 -7
CBSH 10 59897 1
BKD 66 2169995 2

As you can see these stocks had an average of 31 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $647 million, while in OA’s case, hedge funds reported $757 million worth of stock in aggregate. Brookdale Senior Living, Inc. (NYSE:BKD) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH) is the least popular one with only 10 bullish hedge fund positions. Orbital ATK Inc (NYSE:OA) 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 BKD might be a better candidate to consider a long position.

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