Should You Avoid Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (WBA)?

Seeing as Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA) has experienced falling interest from the smart money, it’s safe to say that there was a specific group of hedgies who were dropping their full holdings last quarter. Interestingly, Barry Rosenstein’s JANA Partners dumped the biggest investment of the “upper crust” of funds watched by Insider Monkey, valued at about $381.3 million in call options.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA) but similarly valued. These stocks are Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE:HON), Royal Bank of Canada (USA) (NYSE:RY), Ambev SA (ADR) (NYSE:ABEV), and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (ADR) (NYSE:SNP). This group of stocks’ market values are similar to WBA’s market value.

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 $633 million. That figure was $3.13 billion in WBA’s case. Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE:HON) is the most popular stock in this table with 48 funds holding shares as of the end of the third quarter. On the other hand China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (ADR) (NYSE:SNP) is the least popular one with only 11 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA) is more popular among hedge funds. Considering that hedge funds are fond of this stock in relation to its market cap peers, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and potentially include it in your portfolio.