Here is What Hedge Funds Think About Merck & Co., Inc. (MRK)

Now, key hedge funds were leading the bulls’ herd. Alyeska Investment Group, managed by Anand Parekh, established the most valuable position in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK). Alyeska Investment Group had $75.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Benjamin A. Smith’s Laurion Capital Management also initiated a $15.8 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new MRK positions are Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management, Arthur B Cohen and Joseph Healey’s Healthcor Management LP, and Malcolm Fairbairn’s Ascend Capital.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK). These stocks are Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD), PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE:PEP), Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA), and Medtronic, Inc. (NYSE:MDT). All of these stocks’ market caps are similar to MRK’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 72 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $5.53 billion. That figure was $2.55 billion in MRK’s case. Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Medtronic, Inc. (NYSE:MDT) is the least popular one with only 57 bullish hedge fund positions. Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard GILD might be a better candidate to consider a long position.

Disclosure: none