Do Hedge Funds Love SYSCO Corporation (SYY)?

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Renaissance Technologies created the most valuable position in SYSCO Corporation (NYSE:SYY). Renaissance Technologies had $136 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Balyasny Asset Management also made a $67.6 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new SYY investors: Gordy Holterman and Derek Dunn’s Overland Advisors, John Tompkins’s Tyvor Capital, and Peter Muller’s PDT Partners.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to SYSCO Corporation (NYSE:SYY). These stocks are Health Care REIT, Inc. (NYSE:HCN), Norfolk Southern Corp. (NYSE:NSC), Perrigo Company (NYSE:PRGO), and General Growth Properties Inc (NYSE:GGP). All of these stocks’ market caps are closest to SYSCO Corporation (NYSE:SYY)’s market cap.

As you can see, these stocks had an average of 37 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1.49 billion. That figure was $3.46 billion in SYSCO Corporation (NYSE:SYY)’s case. Perrigo Company (NASDAQ:PRGO) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand, Health Care REIT, Inc. (NYSE:HCN) is the least popular one with only 24 bullish hedge fund positions. SYSCO Corporation (NYSE:SYY) is not the least popular stock in this group, but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard, Perrigo Company (NASDAQ:PRGO) might be a better candidate to consider a long position.