Is Loews Corporation (L) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds?

Judging by the fact that Loews Corporation (NYSE:L) has witnessed bearish sentiment from the smart money, logic holds that there were a few hedge funds that elected to cut their entire stakes by the end of the third quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management cut the largest position of the 700 funds watched by Insider Monkey, worth about $0.8 million in stock. First Eagle Investment Management also dropped its stock, about $0.6 million worth. These transactions are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest was cut by 2 funds by the end of the third quarter.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Loews Corporation (NYSE:L). These stocks are Magna International Inc. (USA) (NYSE:MGA), United Continental Holdings Inc (NYSE:UAL), CA, Inc. (NASDAQ:CA), and Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK). This group of stocks’ market values are closest to Loews’ market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 35.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1.28 billion. That figure was $319 million in Lowe’s case. United Continental Holdings Inc (NYSE:UAL) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) is the least popular one with only 23 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Loews Corporation (NYSE:L) is even less popular than VRSK.

Considering that hedge funds aren’t fond of this stock in relation to other companies analyzed in this article, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and understand why the smart money isn’t behind this stock. This isn’t necessarily bad news. Although it is possible that hedge funds may think the stock is overpriced and view the stock as a short candidate, they may not be very familiar with the bullish thesis. In either case more research is warranted.

Disclosure: None