Hedge Funds Aren’t Crazy About Automatic Data Processing (ADP) Anymore

Due to the fact that Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP) has faced declining sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s safe to say that there is a sect of hedgies that decided to sell off their full holdings by the end of the third quarter. Intriguingly, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management sold off the biggest stake of the “upper crust” of funds watched by Insider Monkey, valued at an estimated $30.9 million in stock. Matthew Tewksbury’s fund, Stevens Capital Management, also dropped its stock, about $22.8 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as total hedge fund interest fell by 10 funds by the end of the third quarter.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP). These stocks are American Tower Corp (NYSE:AMT), Deutsche Bank AG (USA) (NYSE:DB), Anthem Inc (NYSE:ANTM), and Public Storage (NYSE:PSA). All of these stocks’ market caps are similar to ADP’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 31.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $1573 million. That figure was $957 million in ADP’s case. Anthem Inc (NYSE:ANTM) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Deutsche Bank AG (USA) (NYSE:DB) is the least popular one with only 8 bullish hedge fund positions. Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP) 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 ANTM might be a better candidate to consider a long position.