What Do Hedge Funds Think of PDC Energy Inc (PDCE)?

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As industrywide interest jumped, some big names were leading the bulls’ herd. Balyasny Asset Management, managed by Dmitry Balyasny, created the most outsized position in PDC Energy Inc (NASDAQ:PDCE). Balyasny Asset Management had $12.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Nathaniel August’s Mangrove Partners also initiated a $8.2 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new PDCE investors: Jacob Gottlieb’s Visium Asset Management, Lawrence Sapanski’s Scoria Capital, and Cliff Asness’ AQR Capital Management.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to PDC Energy Inc (NASDAQ:PDCE). We will take a look at Groupon Inc (NASDAQ:GRPN), J&J Snack Foods Corp. (NASDAQ:JJSF), NRG Yield, Inc. Class C (NYSE:NYLD), and Esterline Technologies Corporation (NYSE:ESL). This group of stocks’ market valuations are closest to PDCE’s market valuation.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
GRPN 26 135591 -8
JJSF 9 63918 2
NYLD 31 277988 -2
ESL 21 443595 -1

As you can see these stocks had an average of 21.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $230 million. That figure was $362 million in PDCE’s case. NRG Yield, Inc. Class C (NYSE:NYLD) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand J&J Snack Foods Corp. (NASDAQ:JJSF) is the least popular one with only 9 bullish hedge fund positions. PDC Energy Inc (NASDAQ:PDCE) 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. In this regard NYLD might be a better candidate to consider a long position.

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