Should You Buy Valero Energy Corporation (VLO)?

With the third-quarter round of 13F filings behind us, it is time to take a look at the stocks in which some of the best money managers in the world preferred to invest or sell heading into the fourth quarter. One of these stocks was Valero Energy Corporation (NYSE:VLO).

Valero Energy Corporation has seen an increase in enthusiasm from smart money recently. VLO was in 56 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. There were 48 hedge funds in our database with VLO holdings at the end of the previous quarter. The level and the change in hedge fund popularity aren’t the only variables you need to analyze to decipher hedge funds’ perspectives. A stock may witness a boost in popularity but it may still be less popular than similarly priced stocks. That’s why at the end of this article we will examine companies such as eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY), Syngenta AG (ADR) (NYSE:SYT), and Liberty Global PLC LiLAC Class A (NASDAQ:LILA) to gather more data points.

In the 21st-century investor’s toolkit, there are many tools shareholders employ to grade stocks. Two of the less known tools are hedge fund and insider trading activity. We have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite fund managers can outperform the broader indices by a superb amount (see the details here).

With all of this in mind, let’s take a peek at the key action encompassing Valero Energy Corporation (NYSE:VLO).

Hedge fund activity in Valero Energy Corporation (NYSE:VLO)

At the end of the third quarter, a total of 56 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 17% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings considerably (or already accumulated large positions).

When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw has the most valuable position in Valero Energy Corporation (NYSE:VLO), worth close to $496.3 million, comprising 0.7% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is AQR Capital Management, managed by Cliff Asness, which holds a $398.4 million position; the fund has 0.8% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedge funds and institutional investors that are bullish include Robert Joseph Caruso’s Select Equity Group, David Harding’s Winton Capital Management and Clint Carlson’s Carlson Capital.