Hedge Funds Are Betting On Neenah Paper, Inc. (NP)

As one would reasonably expect, key hedge funds have been driving this bullishness. D E Shaw initiated the largest call position in Neenah Paper, Inc. (NYSE:NP), reportedly holding a $0.8 million position at the end of the quarter. Brian Taylor’s Pine River Capital Management also initiated a $0.7 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Paul Tudor Jones’ Tudor Investment Corp, Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management, and Gavin Saitowitz and Cisco J. del Valle’s Springbok Capital.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Neenah Paper, Inc. (NYSE:NP) but similarly valued. These stocks are Universal Corp (NYSE:UVV), Exponent, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPO), Wesco Aircraft Holdings Inc (NYSE:WAIR), and Central Garden & Pet Co (NASDAQ:CENT). This group of stocks’ market values resemble NP’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 14 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $130 million. That figure was $94 million in NP’s case. Central Garden & Pet Co (NASDAQ:CENT) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Exponent, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPO) is the least popular one with only 8 bullish hedge fund positions. Neenah Paper, Inc. (NYSE:NP) 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 CENT might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: None