Hedge Funds Don’t Think Very Highly of Annaly Capital Management, Inc. (NLY)

We already know that not all hedge funds are bullish on the stock and some hedge funds actually dumped their positions entirely. At the top of the heap, David E. Shaw’s D E Shaw dumped the largest stake of the 700 funds tracked by Insider Monkey, worth about $41.5 million in stock. Dmitry Balyasny’s fund, Balyasny Asset Management, also cut its stock, about $7.8 million worth.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Annaly Capital Management, Inc. (NYSE:NLY) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Restaurant Brands International Inc (NYSE:QSR), Discovery Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:DISCK), SCANA Corporation (NYSE:SCG), and IMS Health Holdings Inc (NYSE:IMS). This group of stocks’ market caps resemble NLY’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 23 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1.23 billion. That figure was $120 million in NLY’s case. Restaurant Brands International Inc (NYSE:QSR) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand SCANA Corporation (NYSE:SCG) is the least popular one with only 18 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Annaly Capital Management, Inc. (NYSE:NLY) is even less popular than SCG. 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