Hedge Funds Aren’t Crazy About Northern Trust Corporation (NTRS) Anymore

Is Northern Trust Corporation (NASDAQ:NTRS) a good bet right now? We like to analyze hedge fund sentiment before doing days of in-depth research. We do so because hedge funds and other elite investors have numerous Ivy league graduates, expert network advisers, and supply chain tipsters working or consulting for them. There is not a shortage of news stories covering failed hedge fund investments (for some reason media paid a ton of attention to Ackman’s gigantic JC Penney and Valeant failures) and it is a fact that hedge funds’ picks don’t beat the market 100% of the time, but their consensus picks have historically done very well and have outperformed the market after adjusting for risk.

Northern Trust Corporation (NASDAQ:NTRS) investors should pay attention to a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money recently. NTRS was in 22 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2015. There were 30 hedge funds in our database with NTRS holdings at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of this article we will also compare NTRS to other stocks including Liberty Interactive Corp (NASDAQ:QVCA), International Paper Company (NYSE:IP), and Roper Industries, Inc. (NYSE:ROP) to get a better sense of its popularity.

With all of this in mind, we’re going to view the new action regarding Northern Trust Corporation (NASDAQ:NTRS).

How have hedgies been trading Northern Trust Corporation (NASDAQ:NTRS)?

At Q3’s end, a total of 22 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of -27% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings considerably (or already accumulated large positions).

Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group has the most valuable position in Northern Trust Corporation (NASDAQ:NTRS), worth close to $87.5 million, comprising 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. The second most bullish fund manager is GAMCO Investors, led by Mario Gabelli, holding a $78.8 million position; the fund has 0.5% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining peers with similar optimism encompass Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management, John A. Levin’s Levin Capital Strategies and Cliff Asness’ AQR Capital Management.