Do Hedge Funds Love Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA (ADR) (BBVA)?

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Interestingly, Robert Raiff’s Raiff Partners sold off the largest position of the 700 funds tracked by Insider Monkey, comprising close to $0.9 million in stock. Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s fund, Arrowstreet Capital, also cut its stock, about $0.3 million worth. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA (ADR) (NYSE:BBVA). We will take a look at Metlife Inc (NYSE:MET), National Grid plc (ADR) (NYSE:NGG), Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Grp, Inc. (ADR) (NYSE:SMFG), and Texas Instruments Incorporated (NASDAQ:TXN). All of these stocks’ market caps resemble BBVA’s market cap.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
MET 47 1723169 -8
NGG 6 165920 1
SMFG 14 35784 -3
TXN 35 710030 2

As you can see these stocks had an average of 25.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $659 million. That figure was $4 million in BBVA’s case. Metlife Inc (NYSE:MET) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand National Grid plc (ADR) (NYSE:NGG) is the least popular one with only 6 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA (ADR) (NYSE:BBVA) is even less popular than NGG. 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.

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