Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc. (LGND): Hedge Fund Sentiment Unchanged

Due to the fact that Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:LGND) has witnessed bearish sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, we can see that there exists a select few fund managers who were dropping their positions entirely by the end of the third quarter. At the top of the heap, Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies cashed in the largest investment of the 700 funds watched by Insider Monkey, comprising an estimated $13.8 million in stock, and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $3.8 million worth of shares.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:LGND). These stocks are Grifols SA, Barcelona (NASDAQ:GRFS), Wintrust Financial Corp (NASDAQ:WTFC), Nice Systems Ltd (ADR) (NASDAQ:NICE), and United States Steel Corporation (NYSE:X). This group of stocks’ market valuations resemble LGND’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 19 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $330 million. That figure was $214 million in LGND’s case. United States Steel Corporation (NYSE:X) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Grifols SA, Barcelona (NASDAQ:GRFS) is the least popular one with only 12 bullish hedge fund positions. Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:LGND) 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 X might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: None