Do Hedge Funds Love Parsley Energy Inc (PE)?

Seeing as Parsley Energy Inc (NYSE:PE) has witnessed declining sentiment from hedge fund managers, it’s easy to see that there lies a certain “tier” of hedgies that elected to cut their entire stakes heading into Q4. Interestingly, Todd J. Kantor’s Encompass Capital Advisors dropped the biggest position of all the hedgies watched by Insider Monkey, totaling an estimated $23.5 million in stock, and David M. Knott’s Dorset Management was right behind this move, as the fund said goodbye to about $4.9 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest fell by 4 funds heading into Q4.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Parsley Energy Inc (NYSE:PE) but similarly valued. These stocks are TRI Pointe Group Inc (NYSE:TPH), Fulton Financial Corp (NASDAQ:FULT), Northern Tier Energy LP (NYSE:NTI), and Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA). This group of stocks’ market values are similar to PE’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 17 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $261 million. That figure was $423 million in PE’s case. Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Fulton Financial Corp (NASDAQ:FULT) is the least popular one with only 11 bullish hedge fund positions. Parsley Energy Inc (NYSE:PE) 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 ZNGA might be a better candidate to consider a long position.