Here is What Hedge Funds Think About National-Oilwell Varco, Inc. (NOV)

As industrywide interest jumped, some big names have been driving this bullishness. Arosa Capital Management, managed by Till Bechtolsheimer, established the biggest position in National-Oilwell Varco, Inc. (NYSE:NOV). The fund reportedly had $55.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group also initiated a $12.9 million call options position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Robert Vollero and Gentry T. Beach’s Vollero Beach Capital Partners, and T Boone Pickens’s BP Capital.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to National-Oilwell Varco, Inc. (NYSE:NOV). These stocks are Macerich Co (NYSE:MAC), Nomura Holdings, Inc. (ADR) (NYSE:NMR), Whirlpool Corporation (NYSE:WHR), and Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN). This group of stocks’ market caps are similar to NOV’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 21 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $684 million. That figure was $329 million in NOV’s case. Whirlpool Corporation (NYSE:WHR) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Nomura Holdings, Inc. (ADR) (NYSE:NMR) is the least popular one with only 3 bullish hedge fund positions. National-Oilwell Varco, Inc. (NYSE:NOV) 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 WHR might be a better candidate to consider a long position.

Disclosure: none.