Is Windstream Holdings, Inc. (WIN) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds?

As one would reasonably expect, key money managers have jumped into Windstream Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:WIN) headfirst. Citadel Investment Group, led by Ken Griffin, established the biggest call position in Windstream Corporation (NASDAQ:WIN). According to regulatory filings, the fund had $1.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. David E. Shaw’s D E Shaw also made a $0.9 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new WIN investors: George Hall’s Clinton Group, Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital, and Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Windstream Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:WIN) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Employers Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EIG), Meritor Inc (NYSE:MTOR), Monmouth R.E. Inv. Corp. (NYSE:MNR), and Genomic Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GHDX). This group of stocks’ market valuations are closest to WIN’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 15 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $211 million. That figure was $91 million in WIN’s case. Meritor Inc (NYSE:MTOR) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Monmouth R.E. Inv. Corp. (NYSE:MNR) is the least popular one with only 9 bullish hedge fund positions. Windstream Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:WIN) 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 MTOR might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: none.