What Do Hedge Funds Think of Ashland Inc. (ASH)?

Because Ashland Inc. (NYSE:ASH) has experienced falling interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s easy to see that there is a sect of hedge funds who sold off their positions entirely by the end of the third quarter. At the top of the heap, Barry Rosenstein’s JANA Partners said goodbye to the biggest investment of the 700 funds watched by Insider Monkey, worth about $24.4 million in stock. Malcolm Fairbairn’s fund, Ascend Capital, also dumped its stock, about $14.3 million worth. These transactions are important to note, as total hedge fund interest fell by 1 funds by the end of the third quarter.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Ashland Inc. (NYSE:ASH). These stocks are Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALNY), LG Display Co Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:LPL), Apollo Global Management LLC (NYSE:APO), and SS and C Technologies Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:SSNC). All of these stocks’ market caps resemble ASH’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 24 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $413 million. That figure was $686 million in ASH’s case. SS and C Technologies Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:SSNC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand LG Display Co Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:LPL) is the least popular one with only 13 bullish hedge fund positions. Ashland Inc. (NYSE:ASH) 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 SSNC might be a better candidate to consider a long position.