Kirby Corporation (KEX): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock?

Because Kirby Corporation (NYSE:KEX) has faced falling interest from hedge fund managers, we can see that there was a specific group of fund managers that elected to cut their positions entirely heading into Q4. Intriguingly, Jacob Doft’s Highline Capital Management sold off the largest stake of the “upper crust” of funds monitored by Insider Monkey, comprising about $69.6 million in call options.. Clint Murray’s fund, Lodge Hill Capital, also sold off its call options, about $19.2 million worth. These moves are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 4 funds heading into Q4.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Kirby Corporation (NYSE:KEX) but similarly valued. These stocks are Atmel Corporation (NASDAQ:ATML), Sovran Self Storage Inc (NYSE:SSS), Qlik Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:QLIK), and Memorial Resource Development Corp (NASDAQ:MRD). This group of stocks’ market valuations resemble KEX’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 30.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $541 million. That figure was $572 million in KEX’s case. Qlik Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:QLIK) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Sovran Self Storage Inc (NYSE:SSS) is the least popular one with only 19 bullish hedge fund positions. Kirby Corporation (NYSE:KEX) 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 QLIK might be a better candidate to consider a long position.