What Smart Money Thinks about Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (ISRG)?

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key hedge funds have been driving this bullishness. Hudson Bay Capital Management, managed by Sander Gerber, initiated the most outsized call position in Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISRG). Hudson Bay Capital Management had $67.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group also added a $63.4 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new ISRG positions are Andrew Sandler’s Sandler Capital Management and Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISRG). These stocks are NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA), Spectra Energy Corp. (NYSE:SE), Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV), and Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX). All of these stocks’ market caps match ISRG’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 45 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $2246 million. That figure was $1266 million in ISRG’s case. Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) is the most popular stock in this table, while Spectra Energy Corp. (NYSE:SE) is the least popular one with only 25 funds reporting long positions. Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISRG) 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 Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) might be a better candidate to consider a long position.