How do we determine whether Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV (ADR) (NYSE:BUD) makes for a good investment at the moment? We analyze the sentiment of a select group of the very best investors in the world, who spend immense amounts of time and resources studying companies. They may not always be right (no one is), but data shows that their consensus long positions have historically outperformed the market when we adjust for known risk factors.
Is Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV (ADR) (NYSE:BUD) a buy here? Prominent investors are buying. The number of bullish hedge fund positions increased by 8 lately. BUD was in 49 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. There were 41 hedge funds in our database with BUD positions at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of this article we will also compare BUD to other stocks including Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC), Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp (ADR) (NYSE:NTT), and Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ:ORCL) to get a better sense of its popularity.
Follow Anheuser Busch Inbev Sa Nv (NYSE:BUD)
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With all of this in mind, we’re going to check out the latest action surrounding Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV (ADR) (NYSE:BUD).
How are hedge funds trading Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV (ADR) (NYSE:BUD)?
At Q3’s end, a total of 49 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 20% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).
When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Eric W. Mandelblatt’s Soroban Capital Partners has the number one equity position in Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV (ADR) (NYSE:BUD), worth close to $971.7 million, comprising 7.1% of its total 13F portfolio. Other members of the smart money that hold long positions comprise of Tom Russo’s Gardner Russo & Gardner, Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management and Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital.
As one would reasonably expect, specific money managers have been driving this bullishness. OZ Management, managed by Daniel S. Och, assembled the most outsized call position in Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV (ADR) (NYSE:BUD). OZ Management had $254.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Chase Coleman’s Tiger Global Management LLC also initiated a $200.4 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new BUD positions are Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Matthew Mark’s Jet Capital Investors, and Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies.
Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV (ADR) (NYSE:BUD). We will take a look at Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC), Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp (ADR) (NYSE:NTT), Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ:ORCL), and Visa Inc (NYSE:V). This group of stocks’ market caps are closest to BUD’s market cap.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| BAC | 108 | 6448158 | 13 |
| NTT | 12 | 133784 | 4 |
| ORCL | 57 | 7270832 | -1 |
| V | 102 | 8569795 | 4 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 69.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $5606 million. That figure was $5339 million in BUD’s case. Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp (ADR) (NYSE:NTT) is the least popular one with only 12 bullish hedge fund positions. Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV (ADR) (NYSE:BUD) 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 BAC might be a better candidate to consider a long position.
