Is Travelers Companies Inc (TRV) A Good Stock To Buy?

As one would reasonably expect, key hedge funds have been driving this bullishness. Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, assembled the most valuable call position in Travelers Companies Inc (NYSE:TRV). Citadel Investment Group had $8.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies also initiated a $5.2 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new TRV investors: John D. Gillespie’s Prospector Partners, Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital, and Benjamin A. Smith’s Laurion Capital Management.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Travelers Companies Inc (NYSE:TRV). We will take a look at Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL), Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp (NASDAQ:CTSH), Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS), and Anthem Inc (NYSE:ANTM). All of these stocks’ market caps are similar to TRV’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 39 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1.76 billion. That figure was $542 million in TRV’s case. Anthem Inc (NYSE:ANTM) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) is the least popular one with only 24 bullish hedge fund positions. Travelers Companies Inc (NYSE:TRV) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard ANTM might be a better candidate to consider a long position.