Hedge Funds Are Buying Autoliv Inc. (ALV)

As aggregate interest increased, some big names have jumped into Autoliv Inc. (NYSE:ALV) headfirst. Ed Beddow and William Tichy of Beddow Capital Management established the most outsized position in Autoliv Inc. (NYSE:ALV). Beddow Capital Management had $8.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Renaissance Technologies, one of the largest hedge funds in the world, also initiated an $8.2 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new ALV investors: Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP, Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management, and Noam Gottesman’s GLG Partners.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Autoliv Inc. (NYSE:ALV) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Ally Financial Inc (NYSE:ALLY), Harley-Davidson, Inc. (NYSE:HOG), Xylem Inc (NYSE:XYL), and CBRE Group Inc (NYSE:CBG). All of these stocks’ market caps are closest to ALV’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 32 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1.29 billion. That figure was $60 million in ALV’s case. Ally Financial Inc (NYSE:ALLY) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Xylem Inc (NYSE:XYL) is the least popular one with only 17 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Autoliv Inc. (NYSE:ALV) is even less popular than XYL. Considering that hedge funds aren’t fond of this stock in relation to other companies analyzed in this article, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and understand why the smart money isn’t behind this stock. This isn’t necessarily bad news. Although it is possible that hedge funds may think the stock is overpriced and view the stock as a short candidate, they may not be very familiar with the bullish thesis. In either case more research is warranted.

Disclosure: None