Is Intrexon Corp (XON) A Good Stock To Buy?

Due to the fact that Intrexon Corp (NYSE:XON) has faced falling interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, logic holds that there is a sect of fund managers who were dropping their full holdings last quarter. At the top of the heap, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management dumped the biggest position of all the hedgies followed by Insider Monkey, totaling about $4.5 million in stock, and Peter Muller’s PDT Partners was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $3.2 million worth of XON shares. These moves are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 4 funds last quarter.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Intrexon Corp (NYSE:XON). These stocks are NuStar Energy L.P. (NYSE:NS), Thoratec Corporation (NASDAQ:THOR), Allied World Assurance Co Holdings, AG. (NYSE:AWH), and Vectren Corporation (NYSE:VVC). This group of stocks’ market valuations are similar to XON’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 20 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $239 million. That figure was $206 million in XON’s case. Thoratec Corporation (NASDAQ:THOR) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Vectren Corporation (NYSE:VVC) is the least popular one with only 10 bullish hedge fund positions. Intrexon Corp (NYSE:XON) is not the least popular stock in this group, but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard THOR might be a better candidate to consider a long position.