Do Hedge Funds Love Intercontinental Exchange Inc (ICE)?

Judging by the fact that Intercontinental Exchange Inc (NYSE:ICE) has witnessed bearish sentiment from hedge fund managers, it’s safe to say that there were a few money managers that elected to cut their full holdings last quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Keith Meister’s Corvex Capital dumped the biggest stake of the “upper crust” of funds tracked by Insider Monkey, worth close to $271.4 million in stock, and Columbus Circle Investors was right behind this move, as the fund dropped about $59.8 million worth. These transactions are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 5 funds last quarter.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Intercontinental Exchange Inc (NYSE:ICE) but similarly valued. These stocks are PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG), Exelon Corporation (NYSE:EXC), Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:VRTX), and Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN). This group of stocks’ market values are similar to ICE’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 43.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1292 million. That figure was $2017 million in ICE’s case. Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG) is the least popular one with only 20 bullish hedge fund positions. Intercontinental Exchange Inc (NYSE:ICE) 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 ILMN might be a better candidate to consider a long position.