Are Funds Still Holding Bristol-Myers Squibb?

Before we proceed, it is important to point out that 13F filings do not tell the whole story, because these funds are only required to disclose their long positions with the SEC, but are not required to disclose their short positions. A fund making a bearish bet against a stock by shorting calls, for example, might also be long some amount of stock as they trade around their overall bearish position. This long component could show up in a 13F filing and everyone might assume the fund is bullish, but this tells only part of the story because the bearish/short side of the position is not seen.

Having given that caveat, we believe that looking at groups of 13F filings can be revealing, especially when comparing one holding period to another. Below, let’s take a look at the change in BMY positions, for this latest batch of 13F filers:

In terms of shares owned, we count 1 of the above funds having increased existing BMY positions from 09/30/2018 to 12/31/2018, with 12 having decreased their positions and 1 new position. Worth noting is that ARK Investment Management LLC, included in this recent batch of 13F filers, exited BMY common stock as of 12/31/2018.

Looking beyond these particular funds in this one batch of most recent filers, we tallied up the BMY share count in the aggregate among all of the funds which held BMY at the 12/31/2018 reporting period (out of the 1,225 we looked at in total). We then compared that number to the sum total of BMY shares those same funds held back at the 09/30/2018 period, to see how the aggregate share count held by hedge funds has moved for BMY. We found that between these two periods, funds increased their holdings by 331,764 shares in the aggregate, from 52,811,785 up to 53,143,549 for a share count increase of approximately 0.63%. The overall top three funds holding BMY on 12/31/2018 were:

We’ll keep following the latest 13F filings by hedge fund managers and bring you interesting stories derived from a look at the aggregate information across groups of managers between filing periods. While looking at individual 13F filings can sometimes be misleading due to the long-only nature of the information, the sum total across groups of funds from one reporting period to another can be a lot more revealing and relevant, providing interesting stock ideas that merit further research, like Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE: BMY).