Is Atwood Oceanics, Inc. (ATW) A Good Stock To Buy?

Because Atwood Oceanics, Inc. (NYSE:ATW) has sustained falling interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s safe to say that there lies a certain “tier” of fund managers that decided to sell off their entire stakes in the third quarter. Interestingly, Anand Parekh’s Alyeska Investment Group cut the largest stake of all the investors monitored by Insider Monkey, totaling about $10 million in stock. D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, also said goodbye to its stock, about $3.7 million worth.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Atwood Oceanics, Inc. (NYSE:ATW) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Keryx Biopharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:KERX), Aceto Corporation (NASDAQ:ACET), FTD Companies Inc (NASDAQ:FTD), and Sodastream International Ltd (NASDAQ:SODA). This group of stocks’ market values are similar to ATW’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 13 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $88 million, versus $70 million in ATW’s case. Sodastream International Ltd (NASDAQ:SODA) is the most popular stock in this table with 16 funds holding shares. On the other hand Keryx Biopharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:KERX) is the least popular one with only 11 bullish hedge fund positions. Atwood Oceanics, Inc. (NYSE:ATW) 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 Sodastream International Ltd (NASDAQ:SODA) might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: none