Should You Buy Moody’s Corporation (MCO)?

As aggregate interest increased, some big names have been driving this bullishness. Stevens Capital Management, managed by Matthew Tewksbury, established the most valuable position in Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO). Stevens Capital Management had $3.7 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management also made a $2.4 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) investors: George Hall’s Clinton Group, John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors, and Greg Poole’s Echo Street Capital Management.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) but similarly valued. We will take a look at SunTrust Banks, Inc. (NYSE:STI), Magna International Inc. (USA) (NYSE:MGA), Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE:RCL), and Consolidated Edison, Inc. (NYSE:ED). This group of stocks’ market valuations is closest to Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO)’s market valuation.

As you can see, these stocks had an average of 36 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $839 million. That figure was $3.45 billion in Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO)’s case. SunTrust Banks, Inc. (NYSE:STI) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand, Consolidated Edison, Inc. (NYSE:ED) is the least popular one with only 14 bullish hedge fund positions. Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) 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, SunTrust Banks, Inc. (NYSE:STI) might be a better candidate to consider a long position.