Here is What Hedge Funds Think About Retail Opportunity Investments Corp (ROIC)

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, specific money managers have jumped into Retail Opportunity Investments Corp (NASDAQ:ROIC) headfirst. PDT Partners, managed by Peter Muller, initiated the largest position in Retail Opportunity Investments Corp (NASDAQ:ROIC). PDT Partners had $1.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors also initiated a $0.2 million position during the quarter. The only other fund with a new position in the stock is D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Retail Opportunity Investments Corp (NASDAQ:ROIC) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Simpson Manufacturing Co, Inc. (NYSE:SSD), Alliance Resource Partners, L.P. (NASDAQ:ARLP), Hillenbrand, Inc. (NYSE:HI), and New York REIT Inc (NYSE:NYRT). This group of stocks’ market values resemble ROIC’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 12 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $80 million, slightly below than $97 million in ROIC’s case. Hillenbrand, Inc. (NYSE:HI) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand, Alliance Resource Partners, L.P. (NASDAQ:ARLP) is the least popular one with only 5 bullish hedge fund positions. Retail Opportunity Investments Corp (NASDAQ:ROIC) 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 HI might be a better candidate to consider a long position.