Is PPL Corp (PPL) A Good Stock To Buy Right Now?

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Judging by the fact that PPL Corp (NYSE:PPL) has faced a decline in interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, we can see that there lies a certain “tier” of money managers that elected to cut their entire stakes heading into Q4. It’s worth mentioning that Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group said goodbye to the biggest position of the 700 funds tracked by Insider Monkey, valued at an estimated $8.6 million in stock, and Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $6.7 million worth. These moves are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 4 funds heading into Q4.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to PPL Corp (NYSE:PPL). We will take a look at Deere & Company (NYSE:DE), Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE:CAH), Edison International (NYSE:EIX), and LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD). This group of stocks’ market values are closest to PPL’s market value.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
DE 27 3324122 -6
CAH 26 666390 -8
EIX 19 640459 -1
LNKD 59 4838915 -7

As you can see these stocks had an average of 32.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $2.37 billion. That figure was $536 million in PPL’s case. LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Edison International (NYSE:EIX) is the least popular one with only 19 bullish hedge fund positions. PPL Corp (NYSE:PPL) 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 LNKD might be a better candidate to consider a long position in the short term.

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