At Holdings Channel, we have reviewed the latest batch of the 35 most recent 13F filings for the 03/31/2024 reporting period, and noticed that Eli Lilly (LLY) was held by 20 of these funds. When hedge fund managers appear to be thinking alike, we find it is a good idea to take a closer look.

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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 LLY positions, for this latest batch of 13F filers:

In terms of shares owned, we count 10 of the above funds having increased existing LLY positions from 12/31/2023 to 03/31/2024, with 6 having decreased their positions and 3 new positions.

Looking beyond these particular funds in this one batch of most recent filers, we tallied up the LLY share count in the aggregate among all of the funds which held LLY at the 03/31/2024 reporting period (out of the 487 we looked at in total). We then compared that number to the sum total of LLY shares those same funds held back at the 12/31/2023 period, to see how the aggregate share count held by hedge funds has moved for LLY. We found that between these two periods, funds increased their holdings by 436,598 shares in the aggregate, from 3,770,598 up to 4,207,196 for a share count increase of approximately 11.58%. The overall top three funds holding LLY on 03/31/2024 were: