What Do Hedge Funds Think of Core Laboratories N.V. (CLB)?

Judging by the fact that Core Laboratories N.V. (NYSE:CLB) has witnessed bearish sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s easy to see that there was a specific group of hedge funds that slashed their full holdings last quarter. Interestingly, Jorge Paulo Lemann’s 3G Capital sold off the largest investment of the “upper crust” of funds monitored by Insider Monkey, comprising about $11.4 million in stock, and Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management was right behind this move, as the fund dropped about $10.2 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 7 funds last quarter.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Core Laboratories N.V. (NYSE:CLB). We will take a look at Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH), Brookdale Senior Living, Inc. (NYSE:BKD), Ingram Micro Inc. (NYSE:IM), and First American Financial Corp (NYSE:FAF). All of these stocks’ market caps match CLB’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 31.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $834 million. That figure was $135 million in CLB’s case. Brookdale Senior Living, Inc. (NYSE:BKD) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH) is the least popular one with only 10 bullish hedge fund positions. Core Laboratories N.V. (NYSE:CLB) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard BKD might be a better candidate to consider a long position.