Should You Buy Eagle Materials, Inc. (EXP)?

Now, key money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Appaloosa Management LP, managed by David Tepper, established a position in Eagle Materials, Inc. (NYSE:EXP). Appaloosa Management LP had $53 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Stephen Loukas, David A. Lorber, Zachary George’s FrontFour Capital Group also initiated a $22.4 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new EXP investors: Andre F. Perold’s HighVista Strategies, Benjamin A. Smith’s Laurion Capital Management, and Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Eagle Materials, Inc. (NYSE:EXP). We will take a look at Prosperity Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:PB), Youku Tudou Inc (ADR) (NYSE:YOKU), Techne Corporation (NASDAQ:TECH), and GNC Holdings Inc (NYSE:GNC). This group of stocks’ market caps resemble EXP’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 21 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $455 million. That figure was $728 million in EXP’s case. GNC Holdings Inc (NYSE:GNC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Techne Corporation (NASDAQ:TECH) is the least popular one with only 9 bullish hedge fund positions. Eagle Materials, Inc. (NYSE:EXP) is not the most popular stock in this group, but it has still attracted above average attention from investors. Although this may imply it is a stock worth considering, we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this case, GNC might be a better alternative.