Is Qiagen NV (QGEN) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds?

Since Qiagen NV (NASDAQ:QGEN) has faced declining sentiment from hedge fund managers, we can see that there were a few hedgies who sold off their positions entirely by the end of the third quarter. Interestingly, Jacob Gottlieb’s Visium Asset Management sold off the biggest investment of the “upper crust” of funds tracked by Insider Monkey, totaling close to $10.3 million in stock. Vishal Saluja and Pham Quang’s fund, Endurant Capital Management, also dumped its stock, about $3.2 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest fell by 6 funds by the end of the third quarter.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Qiagen NV (NASDAQ:QGEN) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Kilroy Realty Corp (NYSE:KRC), Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN), Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP), and Axalta Coating Systems Ltd (NYSE:AXTA). This group of stocks’ market caps are closest to QGEN’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 22 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $549 million. That figure was $107 million in QGEN’s case. Axalta Coating Systems Ltd (NYSE:AXTA) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Kilroy Realty Corp (NYSE:KRC) is the least popular one with only 8 bullish hedge fund positions. Qiagen NV (NASDAQ:QGEN) 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 AXTA might be a better candidate to consider a long position.