Should You Buy Blackbaud, Inc. (BLKB)?

As aggregate interest increased, specific money managers have jumped into Blackbaud, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLKB) headfirst. Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, assembled the largest position in Blackbaud, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLKB). Millennium Management had $14.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Drew Cupps’s Cupps Capital Management also made a $4.3 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new BLKB positions are Andre F. Perold’s HighVista Strategies, Peter Muller’s PDT Partners, and Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Blackbaud, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLKB). These stocks are ProAssurance Corporation (NYSE:PRA), Valero Energy Partners LP (NYSE:VLP), Aaron’s, Inc. (NYSE:AAN), and Store Capital Corp (NYSE:STOR). All of these stocks’ market caps are similar to BLKB’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 14.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $522 million. That figure was $137 million in BLKB’s case. Aaron’s, Inc. (NYSE:AAN) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Valero Energy Partners LP (NYSE:VLP) is the least popular one with only 5 bullish hedge fund positions. Blackbaud, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLKB) 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 AAN might be a better candidate to consider a long position.