What Do Hedge Funds Think of 3M Co (MMM)?

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, specific money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Balyasny Asset Management, managed by Dmitry Balyasny, established the most valuable position in 3M Co (NYSE:MMM). Balyasny Asset Management had $79 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Nick Niell’s Arrowgrass Capital Partners also initiated a $2.2 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new MMM positions are Noam Gottesman’s GLG Partners, Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP, and Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to 3M Co (NYSE:MMM). We will take a look at United Parcel Service, Inc. (NYSE:UPS), Schlumberger Limited. (NYSE:SLB), Kraft Heinz Co (NASDAQ:KHC), and Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ:CELG). This group of stocks’ market valuations are closest to MMM’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 54.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $8,273 million. That figure was $1,907 million in MMM’s case. Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ:CELG) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand United Parcel Service, Inc. (NYSE:UPS) is the least popular one with only 40 bullish hedge fund positions. 3M Co (NYSE:MMM) 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 CELG might be a better candidate to consider a long position.