What Do Hedge Funds Think of Leggett & Platt, Inc. (LEG)?

As industrywide interest jumped, specific money managers have jumped into Leggett & Platt, Inc. (NYSE:LEG) headfirst. Winton Capital Management, managed by David Harding, established the most outsized position in Leggett & Platt, Inc. (NYSE:LEG). Winton Capital Management had $33.9 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies also initiated a $12.5 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, George Hall’s Clinton Group, and Gregg Moskowitz’s Interval Partners.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Leggett & Platt, Inc. (NYSE:LEG) but similarly valued. These stocks are Brookfield Property Partners LP (NYSE:BPY), Zions Bancorporation (NASDAQ:ZION), CoStar Group Inc (NASDAQ:CSGP), and Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico (ADR) (NYSE:PAC). This group of stocks’ market caps resemble LEG’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 15.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $185 million. That figure was $133 million in LEG’s case. Zions Bancorporation (NASDAQ:ZION) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico (ADR) (NYSE:PAC) is the least popular one with only 5 bullish hedge fund positions. Leggett & Platt, Inc. (NYSE:LEG) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard ZION might be a better candidate to consider a long position.