Hedge Funds Are Betting On Kroger Co. (KR)

As industrywide interest jumped, some big names have been driving this bullishness. Balyasny Asset Management, managed by Dmitry Balyasny, assembled the largest position in Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR). Balyasny Asset Management had $26 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Peter Muller’s PDT Partners also made a $9.6 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Benjamin A. Smith’s Laurion Capital Management, David Costen Haley’s HBK Investments, and Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as The Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Bank of Montreal (USA) (NYSE:BMO), CIGNA Corporation (NYSE:CI), BCE Inc. (USA) (NYSE:BCE), and Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM). This group of stocks’ market caps is closest to Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR)’s market cap.

As you can see, these stocks had an average of 43 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $2.18 billion. That figure was $1.28 million in Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR)’s case. CIGNA Corporation (NYSE:CI) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand, BCE Inc. (USA) (NYSE:BCE) is the least popular one with only 14 bullish hedge fund positions. Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR) 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, CIGNA Corporation (NYSE:CI) might be a better candidate to consider a long position.