Hedge Funds Are Buying The Home Depot, Inc. (HD)

As aggregate interest increased, key hedge funds have jumped into The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE:HD) headfirst. Partner Fund Management, managed by Christopher James, established the largest position in The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE:HD). Partner Fund Management had $60.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Rob Citrone’s Discovery Capital Management also made a $39.6 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are John Tompkins’s Tyvor Capital, Benjamin A. Smith’s Laurion Capital Management, and David Keidan’s Buckingham Capital Management.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE:HD) but similarly valued. We will take a look at HSBC Holdings plc (ADR) (NYSE:HSBC), Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA), Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD), and Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSK). This group of stocks’ market valuations are closest to HD’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 48 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $2.79 billion, compared to $3.94 billion in HD’s case. Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand, HSBC Holdings plc (ADR) (NYSE:HSBC) is the least popular one with only 15 bullish hedge fund positions. The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE:HD) 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 GILD might be a better candidate to consider for a long position.