Hedge Funds Are Dumping Aetna Inc. (AET)

Because Aetna Inc. (NYSE:AET) has witnessed falling interest from hedge fund managers, logic holds that there is a sect of hedgies that decided to sell off their entire stakes by the end of the third quarter. Intriguingly, Arthur B Cohen and Joseph Healey’s Healthcor Management LP said goodbye to the biggest stake of the 700 funds watched by Insider Monkey, totaling an estimated $122.1 million in stock, and Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $117.5 million worth. These transactions are interesting, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 12 funds by the end of the third quarter.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Aetna Inc. (NYSE:AET). We will take a look at General Dynamics Corporation (NYSE:GD), General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS), McKesson Corporation (NYSE:MCK), and Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP). All of these stocks’ market caps are similar to AET’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 41 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $2.53 billion. That figure was $2.34 billion in AET’s case. McKesson Corporation (NYSE:MCK) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP) is the least popular one with only 32 bullish hedge fund positions. Aetna Inc. (NYSE:AET) 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 MCK might be a better candidate to consider a long position.