Is T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (TROW) A Good Stock To Buy?

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Since T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TROW) has experienced falling interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, logic holds that there was a specific group of funds that decided to sell off their positions entirely heading into Q4. Intriguingly, Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management said goodbye to the largest stake of the “upper crust” of funds watched by Insider Monkey, worth close to $5.9 million in stock, and Louis Bacon’s Moore Global Investments was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $5 million worth. These bearish behaviors are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 3 funds heading into Q4.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TROW) but similarly valued. We will take a look at St. Jude Medical, Inc. (NYSE:STJ), Analog Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADI), Spectra Energy Corp. (NYSE:SE), and Tyson Foods, Inc. (NYSE:TSN). All of these stocks’ market caps are similar to TROW’s market cap.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
STJ 41 599886 0
ADI 32 1189511 5
SE 24 146526 2
TSN 46 1810004 -4

As you can see these stocks had an average of 36 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $936 million. That figure was $516 million in TROW’s case. Tyson Foods, Inc. (NYSE:TSN) is the most popular stock in this table, while Spectra Energy Corp. (NYSE:SE) is the least popular one with only 24 bullish hedge fund positions. T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TROW) 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 TSN might be a better candidate to consider a long position.

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