What Do Hedge Funds Think of CNH Industrial NV (CNHI)?

As aggregate interest increased, specific money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Renaissance Technologies, managed by Jim Simons, created the largest position in CNH Industrial NV (NYSE:CNHI). Renaissance Technologies had $13.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Jacob Gottlieb’s Visium Asset Management also initiated an $1.3 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new CNHI positions are D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw and Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as CNH Industrial NV (NYSE:CNHI) but similarly valued. These stocks are Cincinnati Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:CINF), Quest Diagnostics Inc (NYSE:DGX), Cemex SAB de CV (ADR) (NYSE:CX), and Snap-on Incorporated (NYSE:SNA). This group of stocks’ market values are closest to CNHI’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 24.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $436 million. That figure was $379 million in CNHI’s case. Snap-on Incorporated (NYSE:SNA) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Cemex SAB de CV (ADR) (NYSE:CX) is the least popular one with only 18 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks CNH Industrial NV (NYSE:CNHI) is even less popular than CX. Considering that hedge funds aren’t fond of this stock in relation to other companies analyzed in this article, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and understand why the smart money isn’t behind this stock despite the increase in the total number of funds long CNHI. This isn’t necessarily bad news. Although it is possible that hedge funds may think the stock is overpriced and view the stock as a short candidate, they may not be very familiar with the bullish thesis. In either case more research is warranted.