Should You Buy Vornado Realty Trust (VNO)?

As aggregate interest increased, specific money managers have been driving this bullishness. Long Pond Capital, managed by John Khoury, created the most outsized position in Vornado Realty Trust (NYSE:VNO). Long Pond Capital had $54.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. David Harding’s Winton Capital Management also initiated a $29.9 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management, Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP, and Peter Muller’s PDT Partners.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Vornado Realty Trust (NYSE:VNO) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISRG), Macy’s, Inc. (NYSE:M), BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ:BMRN), and Hormel Foods Corporation (NYSE:HRL). This group of stocks’ market valuations are closest to VNO’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 41.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1122 million. That figure was $529 million in VNO’s case. Macy’s, Inc. (NYSE:M) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Hormel Foods Corporation (NYSE:HRL) is the least popular one with only 15 bullish hedge fund positions. Vornado Realty Trust (NYSE:VNO) 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 M might be a better candidate to consider a long position.