Do Hedge Funds Love Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO)?

As industrywide interest jumped, key money managers have jumped into Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) headfirst. Alyeska Investment Group, managed by Anand Parekh, assembled the biggest position in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO). Alyeska Investment Group had $83.7 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group also made a $77.2 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Curtis Macnguyen’s Ivory Capital (Investment Mgmt), Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP, and Philip Hempleman’s Ardsley Partners.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) but similarly valued. These stocks are Unilever N.V. (ADR) (NYSE:UN), Novo Nordisk A/S (ADR) (NYSE:NVO), Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC), and Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg. Co. Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:TSM). This group of stocks’ market values resemble CSCO’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 42 funds holding shares at the end of September and the average amount invested in these stocks was $3.04 billion. That figure was $4.63 billion in Cisco’s case. Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Unilever N.V. (ADR) (NYSE:UN) is the least popular one with only 11 bullish hedge fund positions. Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) 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 Bank of America might be a better candidate to consider a long position.