Is NASDAQ Inc. (NDAQ) A Good Stock To Buy?

Because NASDAQ Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) has experienced a decline in interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, we can see that there exists a select few hedgies that elected to cut their full holdings in the third quarter. Intriguingly, Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP sold off the largest position of the 700 funds monitored by Insider Monkey, worth close to $6.7 million in stock, and Wojciech Uzdelewicz’s Espalier Global Management was right behind this move, as the fund dropped about $2.4 million worth. These moves are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 5 funds in the third quarter.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as NASDAQ Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Arch Capital Group Ltd. (NASDAQ:ACGL), Cablevision Systems Corporation (NYSE:CVC), Dover Corp (NYSE:DOV), and First Republic Bank (NYSE:FRC). All of these stocks’ market caps are closest to NDAQ’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 23 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $820 million, versus $127 million in NDAQ’s case. Cablevision Systems Corporation (NYSE:CVC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Arch Capital Group Ltd. (NASDAQ:ACGL) is the least popular one with only 15 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks, NASDAQ Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) is even less popular than ACGL. 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.