Should You Be Bullish on Nasdaq, Inc. (NDAQ)?

As industrywide interest jumped, some big names were leading the bulls’ herd. Arrowstreet Capital, managed by Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell, initiated the biggest position in NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ). Arrowstreet Capital had $4.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management also initiated a $3.4 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new NDAQ investors: George Hall’s Clinton Group, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, and Benjamin A. Smith’s Laurion Capital Management.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Nasdaq, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) but similarly valued. We will take a look at C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:CHRW), Pearson PLC (ADR) (NYSE:PSO), Citizens Financial Group Inc (NYSE:CFG), and Pentair, Ltd. Registered Share (NYSE:PNR). All of these stocks’ market caps resemble NDAQ’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 24 funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $656 million. That figure was $402 million in NDAQ’s case. Citizens Financial Group Inc (NYSE:CFG) is the most popular stock in this table, while Pearson PLC (ADR) (NYSE:PSO) is the least popular one with only six investors tracked by us reporting ownership of the stock. Nasdaq, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard, Citizens Financial Group Inc (NYSE:CFG) might be a better candidate to consider a long position.