How Genuine Parts Company (GPC) Stacks Up Against Its Peers

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key hedge funds were breaking ground themselves. Clinton Group, managed by George Hall, created the largest position in Genuine Parts Company (NYSE:GPC). According to regulatory filings, the fund had $4.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group also initiated a $1.8 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management, Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP, and Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Genuine Parts Company (NYSE:GPC). We will take a look at Northern Trust Corporation (NASDAQ:NTRS), TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. (NYSE:AMTD), Grupo Televisa SAB (ADR) (NYSE:TV), and American Water Works Co., Inc. (NYSE:AWK). All of these stocks’ market caps match GPC’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 23 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $719 million. That figure was $348 million in GPC’s case. Northern Trust Corporation (NASDAQ:NTRS) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. (NYSE:AMTD) is the least popular one with only 17 bullish hedge fund positions. Genuine Parts Company (NYSE:GPC) 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 NTRS might be a better candidate to consider a long position.

Disclosure: none.