Sentiment Flatlines, But Smart Money Still Loves AerCap Holdings N.V. (AER)

Due to the fact that AerCap Holdings N.V. (NYSE:AER) has experienced falling interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s easy to see that there is a sect of hedge funds who were dropping their full holdings heading into Q4. At the top of the heap, Barry Rosenstein’s JANA Partners dumped the biggest investment of the “upper crust” of funds followed by Insider Monkey, worth close to $481.3 million in stock, and Kieran Goodwin’s Panning Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $44.6 million worth of shares. These bearish behaviors are important to note, as total hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to AerCap Holdings N.V. (NYSE:AER). These stocks are Staples, Inc. (NASDAQ:SPLS), Sensata Technologies Holding N.V. (NYSE:ST), Fibria Celulose SA (ADR) (NYSE:FBR), and Mallinckrodt PLC (NYSE:MNK). This group of stocks’ market caps resemble AER’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 32.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1.16 billion. That figure was $2.99 billion in AER’s case. Staples, Inc. (NASDAQ:SPLS) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Fibria Celulose SA (ADR) (NYSE:FBR) is the least popular one with only 8 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks AerCap Holdings N.V. (NYSE:AER) is more popular among hedge funds. Considering that hedge funds are fond of this stock in relation to its market cap peers and have far more capital allocated towards it, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and potentially include it in your portfolio.