What Smart Money Thinks of Western Refining, Inc. (WNR)?

Now, some big names were leading the bulls’ herd. Point State Capital, managed by Zach Schreiber, established the largest position in Western Refining, Inc. (NYSE:WNR). Point State Capital had $43.1 million invested in the company at the end of the third quater. Vince Maddi and Shawn Brennan’s SIR Capital Management also made a $8.2 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new WNR investors: Curtis Macnguyen’s Ivory Capital (Investment Mgmt), Michael Platt and William Reeves’s BlueCrest Capital Mgmt., and Richard Driehaus’ Driehaus Capital.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Western Refining, Inc. (NYSE:WNR) but similarly valued. These stocks are Universal Forest Products, Inc. (NASDAQ:UFPI), Hawk Corporation (NYSE:HAWK), Grand Canyon Education Inc (NASDAQ:LOPE), and Abengoa Yield PLC (NASDAQ:ABY). This group of stocks’ market valuations resemble WNR’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 19 funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $233 million. That figure was $300 million in WNR’s case. Hawk Corporation (NYSE:HAWK) is the most popular stock in this table with 31 funds reporting long positions as of the end of September. On the other hand Abengoa Yield PLC (NASDAQ:ABY) is the least popular one with only 13 bullish hedge fund positions. Western Refining, Inc. (NYSE:WNR) 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 Hawk Corporation (NYSE:HAWK) might be a better candidate to consider a long position.