Halliburton Company (HAL): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock?

Judging by the fact that Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) has witnessed declining sentiment from the smart money, it’s easy to see that there is a sect of money managers that elected to cut their entire stakes by the end of the third quarter. At the top of the heap, Stanley Druckenmiller’s Duquesne Capital dropped the largest position of the 700 funds watched by Insider Monkey, totaling an estimated $66.6 million in stock, and Christopher James’s Partner Fund Management was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $46.7 million worth of shares. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 10 funds by the end of the third quarter.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) but similarly valued. These stocks are Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE:ITW), Liberty Global PLC LiLAC Class C (NASDAQ:LILAK), Valero Energy Corporation (NYSE:VLO), and eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY). This group of stocks’ market values resemble HAL’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 53 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1.72 billion. That figure was $3.77 billion in HAL’s case. eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) is the most popular stock in this table, whereas Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE:ITW) is the least popular one with only 31 bullish hedge fund positions. Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) 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 EBAY might be a better candidate to consider a long position.