Smart Money Begins to Cool to Targa Resources Corp (TRGP)

Because Targa Resources Corp (NYSE:TRGP) has weathered a decline in interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, we can see that there were a few fund managers who were dropping their positions entirely in the third quarter. Interestingly, Leon Cooperman’s Omega Advisors cashed in the largest stake of all the hedgies studied by Insider Monkey, worth an estimated $47.3 million in stock, and Tide Point Capital was right behind this move, as the fund dumped about $16.9 million worth of call options underlying shares, while retaining its aforementioned long position.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Targa Resources Corp (NYSE:TRGP) but similarly valued. These stocks are Spectrum Brands Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SPB), Mercadolibre Inc (NASDAQ:MELI), AEGON N.V. (ADR) (NYSE:AEG), and News Corp (NASDAQ:NWSA). All of these stocks’ market caps resemble TRGP’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $560 million. That figure was $467 million in TRGP’s case. News Corp (NASDAQ:NWSA) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand AEGON N.V. (ADR) (NYSE:AEG) is the least popular one with only 8 bullish hedge fund positions. Targa Resources Corp (NYSE:TRGP) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on recently. In this regard SPB and MELI might be better candidates to consider taking long positions in.

Disclosure: None