Viking Global’s Latest Bet On Cheaply-Valued Whiting Petroleum Corp (WLL)

What have hedge funds been doing with Whiting Petroleum Corp (NYSE:WLL)?

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 61 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long in this stock, a gain of 20 from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes significantly.

Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, John Paulson‘s Paulson & Co had the most valuable position in Whiting Petroleum Corp (NYSE:WLL), worth close to $384.7 million, corresponding to 2% of its total 13F portfolio. The second-most bullish hedge fund is Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, which held a $362.8 million position; the fund had 0.4% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedge funds that hold long positions comprise Doug Silverman and Alexander Klabin’s Senator Investment Group, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, and Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management.

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key money managers were breaking ground themselves. Senator Investment Group’s aforementioned position was the largest new one made in Whiting Petroleum Corp (NYSE:WLL) during the first quarter. Senator Investment Group had $208.6 million invested in the company at the end of the March quarter. Rob Citrone’s Discovery Capital Management also made a $110.5 million investment in the stock during this period. The following funds were also among the new Whiting Petroleum  investors: Thomas E. Claugus’ GMT Capital, Jacob Doft’s Highline Capital Management, and Marc Lisker, Glenn Fuhrman and John Phelan’s MSDC Management.

Given the extreme bullishness of the smart money and the fact that shares are still trading slightly below many of their entry point’s, we believe Whiting makes a compelling investment at this time.

Disclosure: None