Do Hedge Funds Love HNI Corp (HNI)?

As aggregate interest increased, key hedge funds were breaking ground themselves. Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, initiated the most outsized position in HNI Corp (NYSE:HNI). Millennium Management had $2.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP also initiated a $0.5 million position during the quarter. The only other fund with a new position in the stock is D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to HNI Corp (NYSE:HNI). These stocks are Party City Holdco Inc (NYSE:PRTY), KLX Inc (NASDAQ:KLXI), FleetMatics Group PLC (NYSE:FLTX), and Teekay LNG Partners L.P. (NYSE:TGP). All of these stocks’ market caps resemble HNI’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 16.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $214 million. That figure was $61 million in HNI’s case. KLX Inc (NASDAQ:KLXI) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Teekay LNG Partners L.P. (NYSE:TGP) is the least popular one with only 7 bullish hedge fund positions. HNI Corp (NYSE:HNI) 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 KLXI might be a better candidate to consider a long position.