Hedge Funds Aren’t Crazy About ASML Holding N.V. (ADR) (ASML) Anymore

Seeing as ASML Holding N.V. (ADR) (NASDAQ:ASML) has experienced declining sentiment from the smart money, it’s safe to say that there were a few funds that elected to cut their positions entirely in the third quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital sold off the largest investment of the 700 funds tracked by Insider Monkey, comprising an estimated $110 million in stock. Peter Muller’s fund, PDT Partners, also sold off its stock, about $4.5 million worth of. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 4 funds in the third quarter.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as ASML Holding N.V. (ADR) (NASDAQ:ASML) but similarly valued. These stocks are Paypal Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PYPL), Charles Schwab Corp (NYSE:SCHW), Liberty Global Inc. (NASDAQ:LBTYA), and The Blackstone Group L.P. (NYSE:BX). This group of stocks’ market caps resemble ASML’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 58 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $2.66 billion. That figure was a meager $138 million in ASML’s case. Paypal Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PYPL) is leading the popularity contest, while The Blackstone Group L.P. (NYSE:BX) is the outsider with only 34 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks ASML Holding N.V. (ADR) (NASDAQ:ASML) is even less popular than BX. 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.