Is Stillwater Mining Company (SWC) A Good Stock To Buy?

As one would reasonably expect, key hedge funds have been driving this bullishness. Millennium Management, led by Israel Englander, established the most outsized position in Stillwater Mining Company (NYSE:SWC). According to its latest 13F filing, the fund had $9.7 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. David Costen Haley’s HBK Investments also initiated a $5.9 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, and Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Stillwater Mining Company (NYSE:SWC) but similarly valued. These stocks are Diebold Incorporated (NYSE:DBD), FIRSTSERVICE CORPORATION (TSE:FSV), Fabrinet (NYSE:FN), and NxStage Medical, Inc. (NASDAQ:NXTM). This group of stocks’ market valuations match SWC’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 $232 million. That figure was $315 million in SWC’s case. NxStage Medical, Inc. (NASDAQ:NXTM) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand FIRSTSERVICE CORPORATION (TSE:FSV) is the least popular one with only 10 bullish hedge fund positions. Stillwater Mining Company (NYSE:SWC) 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 NXTM might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: none.