Is Philip Morris International Inc. (PM) A Good Stock To Buy?

Consequently, some big names have been driving this bullishness. Highbridge Capital Management, managed by Glenn Russell Dubin, established the biggest position in Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM). Highbridge Capital Management had $31.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Richard Driehaus’ Driehaus Capital also made a $19.2 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Peter Muller’s PDT Partners, Gavin Saitowitz and Cisco J. del Valle’s Springbok Capital, and Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM). We will take a look at Unilever N.V. (ADR) (NYSE:UN), Unilever plc (ADR) (NYSE:UL), UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE:UNH), and Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg. Co. Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:TSM). This group of stocks’ market valuations resemble PM’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 27 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1.36 billion. That figure was $3.13 billion in PM’s case. UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE:UNH) is the most popular stock in this table, while Unilever N.V. (ADR) (NYSE:UN) is the least popular one with only 13 bullish hedge fund positions. Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) 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 UNH might be a better candidate to consider a long position.