Should You Invest in Marathon Petroleum Corp (MPC)?

As aggregate interest increased, key hedge funds have been driving this bullishness. Point State Capital established the most outsized position in Marathon Petroleum Corp (NYSE:MPC). Point State Capital had $127.6 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Paul Singer’s Elliott Management also initiated a $127.1 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Michael Lowenstein’s Kensico Capital, Matthew Knauer and Mina Faltas’ Nokota Management, and Paul Singer’s Elliott Management.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Marathon Petroleum Corp (NYSE:MPC) but similarly valued. These stocks are Cerner Corporation (NASDAQ:CERN), Baker Hughes Incorporated (NYSE:BHI), Energy Transfer Partners LP (NYSE:ETP), and Ecopetrol S.A. (ADR) (NYSE:EC). This group of stocks’ market valuations resemble MPC’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 24 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1.13 billion, versus $2.80 billion in Marathon’s case. Baker Hughes Incorporated (NYSE:BHI) is the most popular stock in this table, while Ecopetrol S.A. (ADR) (NYSE:EC) is the least popular one with only eight bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Marathon Petroleum Corp (NYSE:MPC) is more popular among hedge funds. Considering that hedge funds are fond of this stock in relation to its market cap peers, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and potentially include it in your portfolio.