Is Portola Pharmaceuticals Inc (PTLA) Worthy of Your Portfolio?

Now that we’ve mentioned the most bullish investors, let’s also take a look at some funds that sold off their entire stakes in the stock during the third quarter. Intriguingly, Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management sold off the largest stake of the 700 funds studied by Insider Monkey, totaling about $9.2 million in stock, and Kris Jenner, Gordon Bussard, Graham McPhail’s Rock Springs Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund dropped about $4.1 million worth of shares.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Portola Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:PTLA). These stocks are Actuant Corporation (NYSE:ATU), The E.W. Scripps Company (NYSE:SSP), Apogee Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:APOG), and Rambus Inc. (NASDAQ:RMBS). All of these stocks’ market caps match PTLA’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 14 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $135 million. That figure was $236 million in PTLA’s case. Actuant Corporation (NYSE:ATU) is the most popular stock in this table with 16 funds holding shares. On the other hand The E.W. Scripps Company (NYSE:SSP) is the least popular one with only 10 bullish hedge fund positions. Portola Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:PTLA) 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 Actuant Corporation (NYSE:ATU) might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: none