Amgen, Inc. (AMGN): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock?

As aggregate interest increased, key hedge funds were leading the bulls’ herd. OZ Management, managed by Daniel S. Och, created the most outsized call position in Amgen, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN). OZ Management had $70.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. John A. Levin’s Levin Capital Strategies also made a $38.5 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global, Daniel S. Och’s OZ Management, and David Lamond’s Lamond Capital Partners.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Amgen, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN). We will take a look at British American Tobacco PLC (ADR) (NYSEAMEX:BTI), TOTAL S.A. (ADR) (NYSE:TOT), BP plc (ADR) (NYSE:BP), and Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA). This group of stocks’ market valuations are similar to AMGN’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 36 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $2.02 billion. That figure was $4.47 billion in AMGN’s case. Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA) is the most popular stock in this table, while British American Tobacco PLC (ADR) (NYSEAMEX:BTI) is the least popular one with only 15 bullish hedge fund positions. Amgen, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) 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 MA might be a better candidate to consider a long position.