Is Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (GS) A Good Stock To Buy?

Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has the biggest position in Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS), worth close to $1.9752 billion, comprising 1.5% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Alex Snow’s Lansdowne Partners, holding a $722.5 million position; the fund has 5% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Some other professional money managers with similar optimism include Edgar Wachenheim’s Greenhaven Associates, Boykin Curry’s Eagle Capital Management and Richard S. Pzena’s Pzena Investment Management.

Because Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) has faced a declination in interest from hedge fund managers, it’s safe to say that there was a specific group of funds that decided to sell off their full holdings in the third quarter. Intriguingly, Michael Messner’s Seminole Capital (Investment Mgmt) cut the largest stake of all the hedgies followed by Insider Monkey, comprising an estimated $38 million in call options., and Anthony Bozza’s Lakewood Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund said goodbye to about $25.3 million worth. These moves are important to note, as total hedge fund interest dropped by 4 funds in the third quarter.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS). These stocks are American International Group Inc (NYSE:AIG), QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM), U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB), and Toronto-Dominion Bank (USA) (NYSE:TD). This group of stocks’ market values are similar to GS’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 56 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $5.48 billion. That figure was $5.92 billion in GS’s case. American International Group Inc (NYSE:AIG) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Toronto-Dominion Bank (USA) (NYSE:TD) is the least popular one with only 14 bullish hedge fund positions. Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) 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 AIG might be a better candidate to consider a long position.