Do Hedge Funds Love Splunk Inc (SPLK)?

At the top of the heap, John Burbank’s Passport Capital dropped the biggest position of all the hedgies tracked by Insider Monkey, totaling an estimated $54.1 million in call options, and Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $19.1 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Splunk Inc (NASDAQ:SPLK) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Pinnacle West Capital Corporation (NYSE:PNW), Aramark (NYSE:ARMK), DENTSPLY International Inc. (NASDAQ:XRAY), and The WhiteWave Foods Co (NYSE:WWAV). This group of stocks’ market caps are similar to SPLK’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 33.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1152 million. That figure was $396 million in SPLK’s case. Aramark (NYSE:ARMK) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Pinnacle West Capital Corporation (NYSE:PNW) is the least popular one with only 18 bullish hedge fund positions. Splunk Inc (NASDAQ:SPLK) 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 ARMK might be a better candidate to consider a long position.