What Do Hedge Funds Think of Markel Corporation (MKL)?

As one would reasonably expect, key hedge funds have been driving this bullishness. Segantii Capital, managed by Simon Sadler, created the most valuable position in Markel Corporation (NYSE:MKL). Segantii Capital had $2.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. George Hall’s Clinton Group also made a $1.4 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Peter Muller’s PDT Partners, Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP, and Chao Ku’s Nine Chapters Capital Management.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Markel Corporation (NYSE:MKL) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTXS), Realty Income Corp (NYSE:O), SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK), and Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc (NYSE:CCE). This group of stocks’ market caps match MKL’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 29.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $850 million. That figure was $783 million in MKL’s case. Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTXS) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Realty Income Corp (NYSE:O) is the least popular one with only 13 bullish hedge fund positions. Markel Corporation (NYSE:MKL) 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 CTXS might be a better candidate to consider a long position.