Should You Buy Western Gas Partners, LP (WES)?

Consequently, specific money managers have jumped into Western Gas Partners, LP (NYSE:WES) headfirst. Balyasny Asset Management assembled the largest position in Western Gas Partners, LP (NYSE:WES). Zimmer Partners also initiated a $1.9 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new WES positions are Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and PEAK6 Capital Management.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Western Gas Partners, LP (NYSE:WES) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Israel Chemicals Ltd. (NYSE:ICL), Msci Inc (NYSE:MSCI), American Capital Agency Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC), and Centene Corp (NYSE:CNC). This group of stocks’ market valuations are closest to WES’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 24 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $547 million. That figure was just $33 million in WES’s case. Centene Corp (NYSE:CNC) is the most popular stock in this table, while Israel Chemicals Ltd. (NYSE:ICL) is the least popular one with only 5 bullish hedge fund positions. Western Gas Partners, LP (NYSE:WES) 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 CNC might be a better candidate to consider a long position.