Hedge Funds Aren’t Crazy About Novartis AG (ADR) (NVS) Anymore

We can judge whether Novartis AG (ADR) (NYSE:NVS) is a good investment right now by following the lead of some of the best investors in the world and piggybacking their ideas. There’s no better way to get these firms’ immense resources and analytical capabilities working for us than to follow their lead into their best ideas. While not all of these picks will be winners, research shows that these picks historically outperformed the market when we factor in known risk factors.

Novartis AG (ADR) (NYSE:NVS) investors should be aware of a decrease in hedge fund interest in recent months. Novartis AG (ADR) (NYSE:NVS) was in 29 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. There were 35 hedge funds in our database with Novartis AG (ADR) (NYSE:NVS) positions at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of this article, we will also compare Novartis AG (ADR) (NYSE:NVS) to other stocks, including Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT), AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T), and Procter & Gamble Co (NYSE:PG) to get a better sense of its popularity.

In the financial world, there are a large number of metrics investors put to use to appraise stocks. A duo of the best metrics are hedge fund and insider trading activity. Our researchers have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best hedge fund managers can beat the market by a superb amount (see the details here).

Keeping this in mind, let’s check out the new action surrounding Novartis AG (ADR) (NYSE:NVS).

What does the smart money think about Novartis AG (ADR) (NYSE:NVS)?

At the end of the third quarter, a total of 29 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a decrease of 17% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).

When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Fisher Asset Management, managed by Ken Fisher, holds the biggest position in Novartis AG (ADR) (NYSE:NVS). Fisher Asset Management has a $563.7 million position in the stock, comprising 1.2% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Renaissance Technologies, with a $154.6 million position; 0.4% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other peers that hold long positions include Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital, John Osterweis’ Osterweis Capital Management, and Jerome Pfund and Michael Sjostrom’s Sectoral Asset Management.