Is VMware, Inc. (VMW) A Good Stock To Buy?

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, some big names were breaking ground themselves. Orbis Investment Management, managed by William B. Gray, assembled the most outsized position in VMware, Inc. (NYSE:VMW). Orbis Investment Management had $79 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Nick Niell’s Arrowgrass Capital Partners also initiated a $33.7 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new VMW positions are David Tepper’s Appaloosa Management LP, Doug Gordon, Jon Hilsabeck and Don Jabro’s Shellback Capital, and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as VMware, Inc. (NYSE:VMW) but similarly valued. We will take a look at The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY), Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ:FISV), Fidelity National Information Services (NYSE:FIS), and Zimmer Biomet Holdings Inc (NYSE:ZBH). This group of stocks’ market valuations are closest to VMW’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 38.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1.37 billion. That figure was $1.79 billion in VMW’s case. Fidelity National Information Services (NYSE:FIS) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ:FISV) is the least popular one with only 27 bullish hedge fund positions. VMware, Inc. (NYSE:VMW) 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 FIS might be a better candidate to consider a long position.