Regis, KB Home, and More Stocks Hedge Funds are Buying

Oil and gas exploration and production company Penn Virginia Corporation (NYSE:PVA) was another stock Griffin and his team liked, as Citadel disclosed a large position there as well (check out more of Griffin’s stock picks). The company’s production mix is about half natural gas (down from two thirds a year ago) with the rest being oil and natural gas liquids. As a result revenue was only down 8% as rising oil prices partially offset cheaper natural gas. However, Wall Street analysts expect Penn Virginia to be unprofitable both this year and next year and so we’d avoid it.

A 13D filed with the SEC has disclosed that Steelhead Partners, a hedge fund managed by Michael Johnston (see his latest stock picks), owns 5.3 million shares of oil and gas exploration and production company Endeavour International Corporation (NYSE:END). The fund had initiated a position in Endeavour during the third quarter in the year and owned a little over 4 million shares at the end of September; its most recent purchases have given it 12% of the shares outstanding. Endeavour’s market cap of $240 million (an average of over 700,000 shares are traded daily) means that it is priced at 7 times consensus earnings for 2013. The company is unprofitable on a trailing basis, but revenue is up strongly and it’s worth seeing if its fields are just coming on line- that would be a cheap price for a fast growing producer.

Two hedge funds- Visium Asset Management and Baker Brothers Advisors– reported large stakes in ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:ACAD). The biotechnology company’s market capitalization is only about $260 million, but an average of over 3 million shares have been traded daily and the current market price is $4.50; this means over $10 million in daily dollar volume. The stock is up nearly 300% in the last year as it has been picking up sales, though as a development stage company it remains unprofitable.