Is Emerson Electric Co. (EMR) a Good Buy?

Since Emerson Electric Co. (NYSE:EMR) has faced bearish sentiment from the smart money, it’s easy to see that there was a specific group of funds that slashed their entire stakes by the end of the third quarter. Interestingly, Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP dropped the largest investment of the “upper crust” of funds monitored by Insider Monkey, worth an estimated $46.3 million in stock, and Stephen Loukas, David A. Lorber, Zachary George’s FrontFour Capital Group was right behind this move, as the fund dropped about $12.1 million worth. These transactions are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 6 funds by the end of the third quarter.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Emerson Electric Co. (NYSE:EMR). We will take a look at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (USA) (NYSE:CM), Petroleo Brasileiro Petrobras SA (ADR) (NYSE:PBR), Becton, Dickinson and Co. (NYSE:BDX), and American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NYSE:AEP). All of these stocks’ market caps are closest to EMR’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 25.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $586 million. That figure was $682 million in EMR’s case. Becton, Dickinson and Co. (NYSE:BDX) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (USA) (NYSE:CM) is the least popular one with only 14 bullish hedge fund positions. Emerson Electric Co. (NYSE:EMR) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard BDX might be a better candidate to consider a long position.