Hedge Funds Are Avoiding Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM) Like The Plague

Due to the fact that Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) has witnessed declining sentiment from hedge fund managers, it’s easy to see that there was a specific group of hedge funds that elected to cut their positions entirely in the fourth quarter. Intriguingly, Bob Peck and Andy Raab’s FPR Partners cut the largest stake of the 700 funds followed by Insider Monkey, totaling about $203.7 million in stock, and Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies was right behind this move, as the fund dropped about $102.7 million worth. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 8 funds in the fourth quarter.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) but similarly valued. These stocks are Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), General Electric Company (NYSE:GE), and Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN). This group of stocks’ market valuations are closest to XOM’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 109.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $9991 million. That figure was $2501 million in XOM’s case. Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) is the least popular one with only 64 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) is even less popular than GE. Considering that hedge funds aren’t fond of this stock in relation to other companies analyzed in this article, we don’t think it is a good idea to invest in this stock at this point. If you think oil prices are going up, there are better alternatives.