Do Hedge Funds Love Franco Nevada Corporation (FNV)?

Now that we’ve mentioned the most bullish investors, let’s also take a look at some funds that dropped their entire stakes in the stock during the third quarter. Intriguingly, First Eagle Investment Management dropped the biggest investment of the 700 funds followed by Insider Monkey, comprising an estimated $539.1 million in stock, and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $4.2 million worth of shares.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Franco-Nevada Corporation (NYSE:FNV) but similarly valued. These stocks are Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB), Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX), EQT Corporation (NYSE:EQT), and Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings (NYSE:LH). All of these stocks’ market caps match FNV’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 35 investors with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1.21 billion, versus $418 million in FNV’s case. Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) is the most popular stock in this table, while Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB) is the least popular one with only 24 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Franco-Nevada Corporation (NYSE:FNV) is even less popular than Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB). Considering that hedge funds aren’t fond of this stock in relation to other companies analyzed in this article, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and understand why the smart money isn’t behind this stock. This isn’t necessarily bad news. Although it is possible that hedge funds may think the stock is overpriced and view the stock as a short candidate, they may not be very familiar with the bullish thesis. In either case more research is warranted.

Disclosure: None