How Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Grp (SMFG) Stacks Up Against Its Peers

Since Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Grp, Inc. (ADR) (NYSE:SMFG) has gone through falling interest from the smart money, it’s safe to say that there is a sect of money managers who were dropping their full holdings heading into Q4. It’s worth mentioning that David Costen Haley’s HBK Investments got rid of the biggest stake of the “upper crust” of funds studied by Insider Monkey, worth an estimated $0.9 million in stock, and Ben Levine, Andrew Manuel and Stefan Renold’s LMR Partners was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $0.3 million worth of shares.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Grp, Inc. (ADR) (NYSE:SMFG) but similarly valued. These stocks are Twenty-First Century Fox Inc (NASDAQ:FOX), Prudential Public Limited Company (ADR) (NYSE:PUK), Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS), and Kimberly Clark Corp (NYSE:KMB). This group of stocks’ market valuations resemble SMFG’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 24 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1.43 billion. That figure was $27 million in SMFG’s case. Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Prudential Public Limited Company (ADR) (NYSE:PUK) is the least popular one with only 9 bullish hedge fund positions. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Grp, Inc. (ADR) (NYSE:SMFG) 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 LVS might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.