Pfizer Inc. (PFE): Hedge Funds Are Bullish and Insiders Are Bearish, What Should You Do?

Is Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) a buy, sell, or hold? Hedge funds are buying. The number of long hedge fund positions inched up by 3 in recent months.

To the average investor, there are a multitude of gauges market participants can use to analyze their holdings. A duo of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top investment managers can trounce the broader indices by a superb amount (see just how much).

Equally as beneficial, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to break down the investments you’re interested in. There are a number of stimuli for an upper level exec to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would buy. Many academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this strategy if investors know what to do (learn more here).

Consequently, it’s important to take a glance at the recent action encompassing Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE).

How have hedgies been trading Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE)?

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 81 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 4% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings substantially.

According to our comprehensive database, Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management had the biggest position in Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE), worth close to $886.3 million, accounting for 2.4% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Rob Citrone of Discovery Capital Management, with a $508.1 million position; 6.8% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other peers that hold long positions include Donald Yacktman’s Yacktman Asset Management, Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management and Donald Chiboucis’s Columbus Circle Investors.

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, specific money managers have jumped into Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) headfirst. Mason Capital Management, managed by Kenneth Mario Garschina, established the most valuable position in Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE). Mason Capital Management had 165.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Paul Tudor Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp also made a $52.7 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new PFE investors: Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management, Charles Clough’s Clough Capital Partners, and Howard Guberman’s Gruss Asset Management.

What have insiders been doing with Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE)?

Bullish insider trading is particularly usable when the company we’re looking at has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest six-month time period, Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 11 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE). These stocks are GlaxoSmithKline plc (ADR) (NYSE:GSK), Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK), Sanofi SA (ADR) (NYSE:SNY), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), and Novartis AG (ADR) (NYSE:NVS). This group of stocks belong to the drug manufacturers – major industry and their market caps are closest to PFE’s market cap.