Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (GS) vs. American International Group Inc (AIG): Which Do Hedge Funds Like More?

Because Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) has experienced falling interest from the smart money, we can see that there was a specific group of hedgies that slashed their full holdings in the third quarter. Intriguingly, Robert Pohly’s Samlyn Capital sold off the largest position of all the hedgies tracked by Insider Monkey, comprising about $106.4 million in stock, and Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies was right behind this move, as the fund cut about $44 million worth of shares. These bearish behaviors are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 4 funds in the third quarter.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) but similarly valued. We will take a look at American Express Company (NYSE:AXP), Diageo plc (ADR) (NYSE:DEO), Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE:HON), and American International Group Inc (NYSE:AIG). This group of stocks’ market caps are similar to GS’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 54.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $6.75 billion. That figure was $5.57 billion in GS’s case. American International Group Inc (NYSE:AIG) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Diageo plc (ADR) (NYSE:DEO) is the least popular one with only 25 bullish hedge fund positions. Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) 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 AIG might be a better candidate to consider for a long position.