Should You Avoid Omnicom Group Inc. (OMC)?

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Before putting in our own effort and resources into finding a good investment, we can quickly utilize hedge fund expertise to give us a quick glimpse of whether that stock could make for a good addition to our portfolios. The odds are not exactly stacked in investors’ favor when it comes to beating the market, as evidenced by the fact that less than 49% of the stocks in the S&P 500 did so during the 12-month period ending October 30. However, 63% of hedge funds’ top 30 stock picks from the index did beat the market, and returned nearly twice as much on average as the index. Thus, we can see that the tireless research and efforts of hedge funds to identify winning stocks can work to our advantage when we know how to use the data. While not all of their picks will be winners, our odds are much better following their best stock picks than trying to go it alone.

Is Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE:OMC) a buy right now? The best stock pickers are turning less bullish. The number of long hedge fund bets fell by 4 in recent months. At the end of this article we will also compare OMC to other stocks including SK Telecom Co., Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:SKM), Alliance Data Systems Corporation (NYSE:ADS), and Northern Trust Corporation (NASDAQ:NTRS) to get a better sense of its popularity.

Follow Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE:OMC)

Keeping this in mind, let’s take a look at the key action surrounding Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE:OMC).

Hedge fund activity in Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE:OMC)

Heading into Q4, a total of 26 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of -13% from the second quarter. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).

According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Pzena Investment Management, managed by Richard S. Pzena, holds the most valuable position in Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE:OMC). Pzena Investment Management has a $391 million position in the stock, comprising 2.5% of its 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Winton Capital Management, led by David Harding, holding a $73.6 million position; 0.6% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other members of the smart money that are bullish encompass Paul Singer’s Elliott Management, Cliff Asness’ AQR Capital Management and Wallace Weitz’s Wallace R. Weitz & Co..

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