Is Allegiant Travel Company (ALGT) a Good Buy?

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, some big names were leading the bulls’ herd. Columbus Circle Investors created the most outsized position in Allegiant Travel Company (NASDAQ:ALGT). Columbus Circle Investors had $31.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management also made a $9.3 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new ALGT positions are Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management, Jane Mendillo’s Harvard Management Co, and Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Allegiant Travel Company (NASDAQ:ALGT) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Symetra Financial Corporation (NYSE:SYA), Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO), Highwoods Properties Inc (NYSE:HIW), and Urban Outfitters, Inc. (NASDAQ:URBN). All of these stocks’ market caps are similar to ALGT’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 22.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $319 million. That figure was $458 million in ALGT’s case. Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Highwoods Properties Inc (NYSE:HIW) is the least popular one with only 9 bullish hedge fund positions. Allegiant Travel Company (NASDAQ:ALGT) 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 AGO might be a better candidate to consider a long position.