Hedge Funds Are Betting On NIKE, Inc. (NKE)

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key hedge funds have been driving this bullishness. Viking Global assembled the largest position in NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE). Viking Global had $217.6 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Alexander Mitchell’s Scopus Asset Management also made a $92.2 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new NKE investors: Ken Heebner’s Capital Growth Management, David Keidan’s Buckingham Capital Management, and Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE). These stocks are Lloyds Banking Group PLC (ADR) (NYSE:LYG), BHP Billiton plc (ADR) (NYSE:BBL), AstraZeneca plc (ADR) (NYSE:AZN), and Royal Bank of Canada (USA) (NYSE:RY). All of these stocks’ market caps resemble NKE’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 12 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $348 million. That figure was $4.49 billion in NKE’s case. AstraZeneca plc (ADR) (NYSE:AZN) is the most popular stock in this table with a total of 18 funds reporting long positions. On the other hand BHP Billiton plc (ADR) (NYSE:BBL) is the least popular one with only 4 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) is more popular among hedge funds. Considering that hedge funds are fond of this stock in relation to its market cap peers, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and potentially include it in your portfolio.