Is Total SA (ADR) (TOT) A Better Stock Than Its Peers?

Because Total SA (ADR) (NYSE:TOT) has faced declining sentiment from hedge fund managers, it’s easy to see that there exists a select few hedge funds that elected to cut their positions entirely last quarter. It’s worth mentioning that Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital sold off the largest investment of all the investors tracked by Insider Monkey, worth close to $60 million in stock. Steve Cohen’s fund, Point72 Asset Management, also said goodbye to its stock, about $29.7 million worth.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Total SA (ADR) (NYSE:TOT) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD), BP plc (ADR) (NYSE:BP), Sanofi SA (ADR) (NYSE:SNY), and Kraft Heinz Co (NASDAQ:KHC). All of these stocks’ market caps are similar to TOT’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 49.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $9121 million. That figure was $68 million in TOT’s case. Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand BP plc (ADR) (NYSE:BP) is the least popular one with only 30 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Total SA (ADR) (NYSE:TOT) is even less popular than BP. 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.