What Smart Money Has To Say About Novartis AG (ADR) (NVS)

As one would reasonably expect, key hedge funds were leading the bulls’ herd. Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management, established the most valuable position in Novartis AG (ADR) (NYSE:NVS). Balyasny Asset Management had $36.3 million invested in the company at the end of the third quarter. Malcolm Fairbairn’s Ascend Capital also initiated a $19.1 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new NVS investors: Principal Global Investors’ Columbus Circle Investors, Efrem Kamen’s Pura Vida Investments, and Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Novartis AG (ADR) (NYSE:NVS) but similarly valued. We will take a look at The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO), Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ:ORCL), Fomento Economico Mexicano SAB (ADR) (NYSE:FMX), and Visa Inc (NYSE:V). This group of stocks’ market values are closest to NVS’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 60 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $8.10 billion. That figure was $915 million in NVS’s case. Visa Inc (NYSE:V) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Fomento Economico Mexicano SAB (ADR) (NYSE:FMX) is the least popular one with only 16 bullish hedge fund positions. Novartis AG (ADR) (NYSE:NVS) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard Visa Inc (NYSE:V) might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: None