Is Apollo Global Management LLC (APO) A Good Stock To Buy?

Judging by the fact that Apollo Global Management LLC (NYSE:APO) has witnessed bearish sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, we can see that there lies a certain “tier” of fund managers who were dropping their full holdings last quarter. At the top of the heap, Howard Marks’ Oaktree Capital Management said goodbye to the largest stake of all the hedgies watched by Insider Monkey, comprising about $22.2 million in stock. Tim Mullen’s fund, Swift Run Capital Management, also dumped its stock, about $1.7 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 2 funds last quarter.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Apollo Global Management LLC (NYSE:APO) but similarly valued. We will take a look at SS and C Technologies Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:SSNC), Qorvo Inc (NASDAQ:QRVO), Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE:H), and ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE:OKE). This group of stocks’ market valuations are similar to APO’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 26 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $465 million, higher than the $242 million in APO’s case. SS and C Technologies Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:SSNC) is the most popular stock in this table, while Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE:H) is the least popular one with only 20 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Apollo Global Management LLC (NYSE:APO) is even less popular than H. Considering that hedge funds aren’t fond of this stock in relation to other companies analyzed in this article, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and understand why the smart money isn’t behind this stock. This isn’t necessarily bad news. Although it is possible that hedge funds may think the stock is overpriced and view the stock as a short candidate, they may not be very familiar with the bullish thesis. In either case more research is warranted.