Seaboard Corp (SEB): Are Hedge Funds Right To Avoid This Stock?

Since Seaboard Corp (NYSEMKT:SEB) has gone through falling interest from the smart money, it’s safe to say that there lies a certain “tier” of hedge funds that elected to cut their full holdings last quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Jim Roumell’s Roumell Asset Management dumped the largest position of all the investors tracked by Insider Monkey, worth about $0.7 million in stock. Ken Griffin’s fund, Citadel Investment Group, also dropped its stock, about $0.4 million worth.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Seaboard Corp (NYSEMKT:SEB) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Validus Holdings, Ltd. (NYSE:VR), Genesee & Wyoming Inc (NYSE:GWR), AGCO Corporation (NYSE:AGCO), and Synovus Financial Corp. (NYSE:SNV). This group of stocks’ market caps are similar to SEB’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 19 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $355 million. That figure was $52 million in SEB’s case. AGCO Corporation (NYSE:AGCO) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Genesee & Wyoming Inc (NYSE:GWR) is the least popular one with only 12 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Seaboard Corp (NYSEMKT:SEB) is even less popular than GWR. Considering that hedge funds aren’t fond of this stock in relation to other companies analyzed in this article, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and understand why the smart money isn’t behind this stock. This isn’t necessarily bad news. Although it is possible that hedge funds may think the stock is overpriced and view the stock as a short candidate, they may not be very familiar with the bullish thesis. In either case more research is warranted.

Disclosure: None