Do Hedge Funds Love Agilent Technologies Inc (A)?

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With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, specific money managers were breaking ground themselves. Polar Capital, led by Brian Ashford-Russell and Tim Woolley, initiated the largest position in Agilent Technologies Inc (NYSE:A). Polar Capital had $19.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. George Hall’s Clinton Group also made a $8.6 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with brand new A positions are Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, Alec Litowitz and Ross Laser’s Magnetar Capital, and Ernest Chow and Jonathan Howe’s Sensato Capital Management.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Agilent Technologies Inc (NYSE:A). These stocks are Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX), BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ:BMRN), Vulcan Materials Company (NYSE:VMC), and Smith & Nephew plc (ADR) (NYSE:SNN). All of these stocks’ market caps match A’s market cap.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
LRCX 47 2031070 0
BMRN 54 1669740 12
VMC 41 1414346 -1
SNN 11 233062 1

As you can see these stocks had an average of 38 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1.34 billion. That figure was $1.4 billion in A’s case. BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ:BMRN) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Smith & Nephew plc (ADR) (NYSE:SNN) is the least popular one with only 11 bullish hedge fund positions. Agilent Technologies Inc (NYSE:A) 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 BMRN might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: None

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