Is Apache Corporation (APA) a Good Stock To Buy?

Judging by the fact that Apache Corporation (NYSE:APA) has experienced bearish sentiment from hedge fund managers, we can see that there lies a certain “tier” of money managers who were dropping their full holdings last quarter. At the top of the heap, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management sold off the largest stake of all the hedgies tracked by Insider Monkey, comprising an estimated $35.4 million in stock, and Till Bechtolsheimer’s Arosa Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund cut about $22.4 million worth of shares. These moves are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Apache Corporation (NYSE:APA). We will take a look at Williams Partners L.P. (NYSE:WPZ), Southern Copper Corp (NYSE:SCCO), ConAgra Foods, Inc. (NYSE:CAG), and ICICI Bank Limited (ADR) (NYSE:IBN). All of these stocks’ market caps are closest to APA’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 24 funds with bullish positions at the end of September and the average amount invested in these stocks was $933 million. That figure was $1.30 billion in APA’s case. ConAgra Foods, Inc. (NYSE:CAG) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Williams Partners L.P. (NYSE:WPZ) is the least popular one with only 11 bullish hedge fund positions. Apache Corporation (NYSE:APA) 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 ConAgra Foods, Inc. (NYSE:CAG) might be a better candidate to consider a long position.