Here is What Hedge Funds Think About Bristol Myers Squibb Co. (BMY)

As aggregate interest increased, key hedge funds were breaking ground themselves. Balyasny Asset Management, managed by Dmitry Balyasny, initiated the biggest position in Bristol Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE:BMY). The fund had $72.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. John Burbank’s Passport Capital also initiated a $23.8 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new BMY positions are Sanford J. Colen’s Apex Capital and Ken Greenberg and David Kim’s Ghost Tree Capital.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Bristol Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE:BMY). We will take a look at China Life Insurance Company Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:LFC), Medtronic, Inc. (NYSE:MDT), McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD), and Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE:LLY). This group of stocks’ market caps are closest to BMY’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 47 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $2.64 billion. That figure was $2.53 billion in BMY’s case. McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD) is the most popular stock in this table, while China Life Insurance Company Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:LFC) is at the other end of the specter with only 9 bullish hedge fund positions. Bristol Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE:BMY) is not the most popular stock in this group, but hedge fund interest is still above average. Although this is a slightly positive signal, we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard MCD might be a better candidate to consider a long position.