Our extensive research has shown that imitating the smart money can generate significant returns for retail investors, which is why we track nearly 750 active prominent money managers and analyze their quarterly 13F filings. The stocks that are heavily bought by hedge funds historically outperformed the market, though there is no shortage of high profile failures like hedge funds' 2018 losses in Facebook and Apple. Let’s take a closer look at what the funds we track think about Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) in this article.

Hedge fund interest in Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) shares was flat at the end of last quarter. This is usually a negative indicator. At the end of this article we will also compare WMT to other stocks including Nestle SA (OTCMKTS:NSRGY), The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG), and Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) to get a better sense of its popularity.

Video: Click the image to watch our video about the top 5 most popular hedge fund stocks.

To the average investor there are a multitude of methods shareholders put to use to appraise their holdings. Two of the best methods are hedge fund and insider trading signals. We have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite money managers can outpace the market by a solid margin (see the details here).

[caption id="attachment_42139" align="aligncenter" width="504"]

Ken Heebner of Capital Growth Management[/caption]

Unlike the largest US hedge funds that are convinced Dow will soar past 40,000 or the world's most bearish hedge fund that's more convinced than ever that a crash is coming, our long-short investment strategy doesn't rely on bull or bear markets to deliver double digit returns. We only rely on the best performing hedge funds' buy/sell signals. We're going to view the recent hedge fund action surrounding Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT).

Hedge fund activity in Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT)

At Q3's end, a total of 56 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 0% from the previous quarter. By comparison, 60 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in WMT a year ago. With hedge funds' capital changing hands, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes substantially (or already accumulated large positions).

More specifically, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust was the largest shareholder of Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT), with a stake worth $1377 million reported as of the end of September. Trailing Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust was Fisher Asset Management, which amassed a stake valued at $1295.2 million. Renaissance Technologies, AQR Capital Management, and D E Shaw were also very fond of the stock, becoming one of the largest hedge fund holders of the company. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Gabalex Capital allocated the biggest weight to Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT), around 8% of its portfolio. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust is also relatively very bullish on the stock, dishing out 6.49 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to WMT.