Do Hedge Funds Love RPM International Inc. (RPM)?

As one would reasonably expect, key money managers were breaking ground themselves. Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, initiated the largest position in RPM International Inc. (NYSE:RPM). According to regulatory filings, the fund had $3.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Ben Levine, Andrew Manuel and Stefan Renold’s LMR Partners also made a $2.9 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new RPM positions are Alec Litowitz and Ross Laser’s Magnetar Capital, Simon Sadler’s Segantii Capital, and Mike Vranos’s Ellington.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as RPM International Inc. (NYSE:RPM) but similarly valued. These stocks are The Middleby Corporation (NASDAQ:MIDD), DDR Corp (NYSE:DDR), EnCana Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ECA), and DexCom, Inc. (NASDAQ:DXCM). All of these stocks’ market caps resemble RPM’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 27 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $753 million. That figure was a meager $130 million in RPM’s case. EnCana Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ECA) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand DDR Corp (NYSE:DDR) is the least popular one with only 18 bullish hedge fund positions. RPM International Inc. (NYSE:RPM) 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 ECA might be a better candidate to consider a long position.

Disclosure: none.