Do Hedge Funds Love Symantec Corporation (SYMC)?

As industrywide interest jumped, key hedge funds have jumped into Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ:SYMC) headfirst. Renaissance Technologies initiated the largest position in Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ:SYMC). Renaissance Technologies had $36 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Mark Travis’ Intrepid Capital Management also initiated a $9.4 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ:SYMC) positions are Simon Sadler’s Segantii Capital, Scott Fine and Peter Richards’s Empire Capital Management, and Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ:SYMC) but similarly valued. These stocks are NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA), FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE), Workday Inc (NYSE:WDAY), and Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE:RHT). This group of stocks’ market valuations is closest to Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ:SYMC)’s market valuation.

As you can see, these stocks had an average of 32 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $647 million. That figure was $753 million in Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ:SYMC)’s case. Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE:RHT) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand, FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) is the least popular one with only 24 bullish hedge fund positions. Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ:SYMC) 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, Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE:RHT) might be a better candidate to consider a long position.