Do Hedge Funds Love Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD)?

Although the masses and most of the financial media blame hedge funds for their exorbitant fee structure and disappointing performance, these investors have proved to have great stock picking abilities over the years (that’s why their assets under management continue to swell). We believe hedge fund sentiment should serve as a crucial tool of an individual investor’s stock selection process, as it may offer great insights of how the brightest minds of the finance industry feel about specific stocks. After all, these people have access to smartest analysts and expensive data/information sources that individual investors can’t match. So should one consider investing in Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NYSE:AMD)? The smart money sentiment can provide an answer to this question.

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NYSE:AMD) investors should pay attention to an increase in hedge fund sentiment in recent months. At the end of this article we will also compare AMD to other stocks including Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO), Juno Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:JUNO), and Graphic Packaging Holding Company (NYSE:GPK) to get a better sense of its popularity.

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Now, we’re going to review the fresh action regarding Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NYSE:AMD).

How are hedge funds trading Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NYSE:AMD)?

At Q3’s end, a total of 47 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 88% from the second quarter of 2016. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings considerably (or already accumulated large positions).

According to Insider Monkey’s hedge fund database, Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital has the most valuable position in Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NYSE:AMD), worth close to $109.8 million, amounting to 0.4% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Marshall Wace LLP, led by Paul Marshall and Ian Wace, holding a $72.2 million position; 0.5% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other peers that hold long positions contain D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, and Leon Shaulov’s Maplelane Capital.

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key money managers have jumped into Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NYSE:AMD) headfirst. Josh Resnick’s Jericho Capital Asset Management made a $46.2 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Curtis Macnguyen’s Ivory Capital (Investment Mgmt), Rob Citrone’s Discovery Capital Management, and Christopher Lord’s Criterion Capital.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NYSE:AMD) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO), Juno Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:JUNO), Graphic Packaging Holding Company (NYSE:GPK), and Eaton Vance Corp (NYSE:EV). This group of stocks’ market valuations are similar to AMD’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 18.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $317 million. That figure was $645 million in AMD’s case. Graphic Packaging Holding Company (NYSE:GPK) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Eaton Vance Corp (NYSE:EV) is the least popular one with only 9 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NYSE:AMD) 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.