Is PetroChina Company Limited (ADR) (PTR) A Good Stock To Buy?

Seeing as PetroChina Company Limited (ADR) (NYSE:PTR) has witnessed a falling interest from hedge fund managers, logic holds that there exists a select few money managers who sold off their positions entirely heading into Q4. Intriguingly, Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management cut the biggest stake of all the hedgies tracked by Insider Monkey, comprising about $1.1 million in call options. Matthew Hulsizer’s fund, PEAK6 Capital Management, also dropped its call options, about $1 million worth. These transactions are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 2 funds heading into Q4.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to PetroChina Company Limited (ADR) (NYSE:PTR). We will take a look at Reynolds American, Inc. (NYSE:RAI), Sanofi SA (ADR) (NYSE:SNY), Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM), and Unilever N.V. (ADR) (NYSE:UN). This group of stocks’ market valuations resemble PTR’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 30 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1.78 billion. That figure was $141 million in PTR’s case. Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Unilever N.V. (ADR) (NYSE:UN) is the least popular one with only 13 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks PetroChina Company Limited (ADR) (NYSE:PTR) is even less popular than UN. Considering that hedge funds aren’t fond of this stock in relation to other companies analyzed in this article, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and understand why the smart money isn’t behind this stock. This isn’t necessarily bad news. Although it is possible that hedge funds may think the stock is overpriced and view the stock as a short candidate, they may not be very familiar with the bullish thesis. In either case more research is warranted.