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We know that hedge funds generate strong, risk-adjusted returns over the long run, therefore imitating the picks that they are collectively bullish on can be a profitable strategy for retail investors. With billions of dollars in assets, smart money investors have to conduct complex analyses, spend many resources and use tools that are not always available for the general crowd. This doesn't mean that they don't have occasional colossal losses; they do (like Peltz's recent General Electric losses). However, it is still good idea to keep an eye on hedge fund activity. With this in mind, as the current round of 13F filings has just ended, let’s examine the smart money sentiment towards Noble Corporation plc (NYSE:NE).

Is Noble Corporation plc (NYSE:NE) a healthy stock for your portfolio? Money managers are taking a bearish view. The number of long hedge fund bets were cut by 1 lately. Our calculations also showed that NE isn't among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.

To most market participants, hedge funds are seen as unimportant, old financial vehicles of years past. While there are over 8,000 funds in operation today, Our researchers look at the upper echelon of this group, around 700 funds. These investment experts watch over most of the hedge fund industry's total capital, and by paying attention to their first-class investments, Insider Monkey has identified a number of investment strategies that have historically outpaced the broader indices. Insider Monkey's flagship hedge fund strategy outpaced the S&P 500 index by 6 percentage points annually since its inception in May 2014 through early November 2018. We were able to generate large returns even by identifying short candidates. Our portfolio of short stocks lost 24% since February 2017 (through December 3rd) even though the market was up nearly 23% during the same period. We just shared a list of 11 short targets in our latest quarterly update.

We're going to review the recent hedge fund action regarding Noble Corporation plc (NYSE:NE).

What have hedge funds been doing with Noble Corporation plc (NYSE:NE)?

Heading into the fourth quarter of 2018, a total of 21 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of -5% from the second quarter of 2018. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in NE over the last 13 quarters. With the smart money's positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an "upper tier" of key hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes substantially (or already accumulated large positions).