What Do Hedge Funds Think About XL Group plc (XL)?

As aggregate interest increased, key hedge funds were breaking ground themselves. Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, initiated the most valuable position in XL Group plc (NYSE:XL). Renaissance Technologies had $13.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Michael Platt and William Reeves’s BlueCrest Capital Mgmt also initiated a $6.3 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new XL investors: George Hall’s Clinton Group, Ken Gray and Steve Walsh’s Bryn Mawr Capital, and Ben Levine, Andrew Manuel and Stefan Renold’s LMR Partners.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as XL Group plc (NYSE:XL) but similarly valued. These stocks are Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ:XLNX), KeyCorp (NYSE:KEY), Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings (NYSE:LH), and Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Limited (ADR) (NYSE:RDY). This group of stocks’ market valuations are closest to XL’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 28.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1,183 million. That figure was $914 million in XL’s case. Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings (NYSE:LH) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Limited (ADR) (NYSE:RDY) is the least popular one with only 14 bullish hedge fund positions. XL Group plc (NYSE:XL) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a positive signal that makes XL worth a closer look.