Western Digital Corp. (WDC): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock?

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key money managers were breaking ground themselves. Maplelane Capital, managed by Leon Shaulov, assembled the most valuable call position in Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ:WDC). Maplelane Capital had $59.6 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. John Brennan’s Sirios Capital Management also initiated a $36.5 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management, Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management, and Ken Hahn’s Quentec Asset Management.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ:WDC). We will take a look at Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR), Boston Properties, Inc. (NYSE:BXP), Sasol Limited (ADR) (NYSE:SSL), and Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD). This group of stocks’ market caps resemble WDC’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 29 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1,291 million. That figure was $2,249 million in WDC’s case. Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Sasol Limited (ADR) (NYSE:SSL) is the least popular one with only 10 bullish hedge fund positions. Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ:WDC) 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 PXD might be a better candidate to consider a long position.