AutoZone, Inc. (AZO) in Spotlight Following Earnings Release

AutoZone, Inc. (NYSE:AZO)’s stock opened lower, but has rebounded and is currently trading around 1% higher on the back of the company reporting its financial results for the fiscal third quarter. The Memphis based automotive parts company posted EPS of $10.77, below the estimates of $10.92. Revenue in the quarter came in at $2.6 billion, falling short of the estimated $2.65 billion. Same store sales increased 2% in the quarter. In the earnings call, AutoZone’s CEO Bill Rhodes said that the sales in the quarter were hit due to the weather in Midwestern, Middle Atlantic, and Northeastern states. Mr. Rhodes said that the company plans to open four additional mega hubs by the end of the current fiscal year. Seeing how the stock is moving on the back of its earnings, let’s take a look at how hedge funds and other big investors positioned themselves in AutoZone, since they usually focus on the long run.

AutoZone, Inc. (NYSE:AZO) investors should pay attention to an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds of late. AZO was in 46 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of March, compared to 41 hedge funds in our database with AZO holdings at the end of the previous quarter. 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 Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:APC), Edison International (NYSE:EIX), and State Street Corporation (NYSE:STT) to gather more data points.

Today there are tons of indicators stock market investors have at their disposal to grade publicly traded companies. A couple of the most useful indicators are hedge fund and insider trading interest. Our researchers have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top hedge fund managers can trounce the market by a superb amount (see the details here).

On the next page, we are going to take a closer look at the hedge fund sentiment that surrounds AutoZone.