Are Hedge Funds Losing Interest In Biogen Idec Inc. (BIIB)?

Seeing as Biogen Idec Inc. (NASDAQ:BIIB) has faced a declination in interest from the smart money, it’s safe to say that there exists a select few hedgies that slashed their entire stakes heading into Q4. At the top of the heap, Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global dumped the largest investment of the 700 funds followed by Insider Monkey, comprising an estimated $207.4 million in stock, and Zach Schreiber’s Point State Capital was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $56.2 million worth of shares. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 3 funds heading into Q4.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Biogen Idec Inc. (NASDAQ:BIIB) but similarly valued. These stocks are Mondelez International Inc (NASDAQ:MDLZ), NTT Docomo Inc (ADR) (NYSE:DCM), Westpac Banking Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:WBK), and Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT). This group of stocks’ market caps are similar to BIIB’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 30 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $2.04 billion. That figure was $3.20 billion in BIIB’s case. Mondelez International Inc (NASDAQ:MDLZ) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Westpac Banking Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:WBK) is the least popular one with only 6 bullish hedge fund positions. Biogen Idec Inc. (NASDAQ:BIIB) 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 MDLZ might be a better candidate to consider a long position.