Hedge Funds Are Dumping Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. (MMC)

Because Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. (NYSE:MMC) has faced falling interest from hedge fund managers, we can see that there lies a certain “tier” of money managers who sold off their entire stakes in the third quarter. Intriguingly, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management dumped the largest position of all the hedgies followed by Insider Monkey, worth close to $28.8 million in stock. Dmitry Balyasny’s fund, Balyasny Asset Management, also dropped its holding, about $9.4 million worth of MMC shares. These moves are important to note, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 6 funds in the third quarter.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. (NYSE:MMC). We will take a look at Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB), WPP PLC (ADR) (NASDAQ:WPPGY), Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. (NYSE:APD), and State Street Corporation (NYSE:STT). This group of stocks’ market valuations match MMC’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 46 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $3.67 billion. That figure was a meager $486 million in MMC’s case. Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. (NYSE:APD) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand WPP PLC (ADR) (NASDAQ:WPPGY) is the least popular one with only 9 bullish hedge fund positions. Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. (NYSE:MMC) is not the least popular stock in this group, but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard APD might be a better candidate to consider a long position.