Praxair, Inc. (PX): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock?

Seeing as Praxair, Inc. (NYSE:PX) has witnessed bearish sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, logic holds that there is a sect of hedge funds that decided to sell off their full holdings in the third quarter. Intriguingly, Joshua Kaufman and Craig Nerenberg’s Brenner West Capital Partners cut the largest investment of the “upper crust” of funds followed by Insider Monkey, worth an estimated $23.9 million in stock. Malcolm Fairbairn’s fund, Ascend Capital, also cut its stock, about $13.3 million worth. These transactions are important to note, as total hedge fund interest fell by 1 funds in the third quarter.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Praxair, Inc. (NYSE:PX). These stocks are V.F. Corporation (NYSE:VFC), Emerson Electric Co. (NYSE:EMR), Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (USA) (NYSE:CM), and Petroleo Brasileiro Petrobras SA (ADR) (NYSE:PBR). This group of stocks’ market values are closest to PX’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 26.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $571 million. That figure was $749 million in PX’s case. V.F. Corporation (NYSE:VFC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (USA) (NYSE:CM) is the least popular one with only 14 bullish hedge fund positions. Praxair, Inc. (NYSE:PX) 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 VFC might be a better candidate to consider a long position.