Is Alaska Air Group, Inc. (ALK) A Good Stock To Buy?

Because Alaska Air Group, Inc. (NYSE:ALK) has witnessed a decline in interest from the smart money, logic holds that there were a few funds who sold off their entire stakes in the third quarter. Interestingly, Anand Parekh’s Alyeska Investment Group said goodbye to the largest position of the 700 funds monitored by Insider Monkey, worth an estimated $6.9 million in stock, and Doug Gordon, Jon Hilsabeck and Don Jabro’s Shellback Capital was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $6.9 million worth of shares. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 6 funds in the third quarter.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Alaska Air Group, Inc. (NYSE:ALK) but similarly valued. These stocks are Open Text Corporation (USA) (NASDAQ:OTEX), Western Gas Partners, LP (NYSE:WES), ITC Holdings Corp. (NYSE:ITC), and Ashland Inc. (NYSE:ASH). This group of stocks’ market valuations resemble ALK’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 23.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $680 million. That figure was $997 million in ALK’s case. ITC Holdings Corp. (NYSE:ITC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Western Gas Partners, LP (NYSE:WES) is the least popular one with only 8 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Alaska Air Group, Inc. (NYSE:ALK) is more popular among hedge funds. Considering that hedge funds are fond of this stock in relation to its market cap peers, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and potentially include it in your portfolio.