Do Hedge Funds Love Atmos Energy Corporation (ATO)?

Page 2 of 2

Because Atmos Energy Corporation (NYSE:ATO) has weathered bearish sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s easy to see that there were a few funds that decided to sell off their full holdings heading into Q4. At the top of the heap, Renaissance Technologies cut the largest position of all the investors followed by Insider Monkey, valued at about $2.9 million in stock. Ken Griffin’s fund, Citadel Investment Group, also sold off its call options, worth about $0.6 million.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Atmos Energy Corporation (NYSE:ATO). These stocks are Philippine Long Distance Telephone (ADR) (NYSE:PHI), Vedanta Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:VEDL), Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Limited (ADR) (NYSE:RDY), and iShares NASDAQ Biotechnology Index (ETF) (NASDAQ:IBB). All of these stocks’ market caps resemble ATO’s market cap.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
PHI 4 90945 -2
VEDL 9 21875 3
RDY 9 421800 2
IBB 23 237514 5

As you can see these stocks had an average of 11 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $193 million. That figure was $188 million in ATO’s case. iShares NASDAQ Biotechnology Index (ETF) (NASDAQ:IBB) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Philippine Long Distance Telephone (ADR) (NYSE:PHI) is the least popular one with only 4 bullish hedge fund positions. Atmos Energy Corporation (NYSE:ATO) 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 IBB might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: none

Page 2 of 2