Is GlaxoSmithKline plc (ADR) (NYSE:GSK) a good investment right now? We check hedge fund and billionaire investor sentiment before delving into hours of research. Hedge funds spend millions of dollars on Ivy League graduates, expert networks, and get tips from industry insiders. They fail miserably sometimes but historically their consensus stock picks outperformed the market after adjusting for known risk factors.
In GSK’s case, it looks like the best stock pickers are in a bullish mood. The number of investors bullish on the stock increased by five to 33 between July and September. However, the level and the change in hedge fund popularity aren’t the only variables you need to analyze to decipher hedge funds’ perspectives. A stock may witness a boost in popularity but it may still be less popular than similarly priced stocks. That’s why at the end of this article we will examine companies such as CVS Caremark Corporation (NYSE:CVS), AbbVie Inc (NYSE:ABBV), and Schlumberger Limited. (NYSE:SLB) to gather more data points.
Follow Glaxosmithkline Plc (NYSE:GSK)
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At Insider Monkey, we’ve developed an investment strategy that has delivered market-beating returns over the past 12 months. Our strategy identifies the 100 best-performing funds of the previous quarter from among the collection of 700+ successful funds that we track in our database, which we accomplish using our returns methodology. We then study the portfolios of those 100 funds using the latest 13F data to uncover the 30 most popular mid-cap stocks (market caps of between $1 billion and $10 billion) among them to hold until the next filing period. This strategy delivered 18% gains over the past 12 months, more than doubling the 8% returns enjoyed by the S&P 500 ETFs.
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With all of this in mind, let’s check out the new action regarding GlaxoSmithKline plc (ADR) (NYSE:GSK).
How have hedgies been trading GlaxoSmithKline plc (ADR) (NYSE:GSK)?
As stated previously, a total of 33 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on GlaxoSmithKline at the end of September, a change of 18% from the end of the second quarter of 2016. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).
According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Fisher Asset Management, led by Ken Fisher, holds the most valuable position in GlaxoSmithKline plc (ADR) (NYSE:GSK). Fisher Asset Management has a $511.6 million position in the stock, comprising 0.9% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital, which owns a $195.4 million position; the fund has 0.6% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other hedge funds and institutional investors that are bullish comprise John W. Rogers’ Ariel Investments, John Osterweis’ Osterweis Capital Management, and Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies.
