Is SCANA Corporation (SCG) a Good Buy?

Because SCANA Corporation (NYSE:SCG) has experienced falling interest from hedge fund managers, we can see that there was a specific group of hedgies that slashed their positions entirely last quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies cut the biggest position of the “upper crust” of funds followed by Insider Monkey, comprising about $29.2 million in stock. Israel Englander’s fund, Millennium Management, also dumped its stock, about $13 million worth. These moves are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 7 funds last quarter.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as SCANA Corporation (NYSE:SCG) but similarly valued. These stocks are Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. (NASDAQ:GMCR), New York Community Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:NYCB), Verisign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN), and SEI Investments Company (NASDAQ:SEIC). This group of stocks’ market values match SCG’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 22 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $763 million. That figure was $74 million in SCG’s case. Verisign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. (NASDAQ:GMCR) is the least popular one with only 16 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks SCANA Corporation (NYSE:SCG) is even less popular than GMCR. 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.