What Smart Money Thinks of ING Groep N.V. (ADR) (ING)?

Because ING Groep N.V. (ADR) (NYSE:ING) has encountered bearish sentiment from hedge fund managers, logic holds that there were a few hedge funds who were dropping their entire stakes in the third quarter. Intriguingly, Andrew Feldstein and Stephen Siderow’s Blue Mountain Capital sold off the largest position of all the investors monitored by Insider Monkey, comprising close to $19.9 million in stock. Peter Muller’s fund, PDT Partners, also dumped its stock, about $1.6 million worth.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as ING Groep N.V. (ADR) (NYSE:ING) but similarly valued. These stocks are General Dynamics Corporation (NYSE:GD), Dominion Resources, Inc. (NYSE:D), FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX), and Suncor Energy Inc. (USA) (NYSE:SU). This group of stocks’ market caps are similar to ING’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 33 funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $3.09 billion. That figure was just $59 million in ING’s case. FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Dominion Resources, Inc. (NYSE:D) is the least popular one with 20 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks ING Groep N.V. (ADR) (NYSE:ING) is even less popular than Dominion Resources. 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. 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.

Disclosure: none