Is Group 1 Automotive, Inc. (GPI) A Good Stock To Buy?

Seeing as Group 1 Automotive, Inc. (NYSE:GPI) has witnessed a decline in interest from the smart money, we can see that there lies a certain “tier” of funds that decided to sell off their entire stakes by the end of the third quarter. At the top of the heap, Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management sold off the biggest investment of all the hedgies followed by Insider Monkey, valued at an estimated $13.3 million in stock. Alexander Roepers’ fund, Atlantic Investment Management, also sold off its entire holding, about $2.8 million worth of GPI shares. These transactions are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 1 fund by the end of the third quarter.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Group 1 Automotive, Inc. (NYSE:GPI). We will take a look at Loral Space & Communications Ltd. (NASDAQ:LORL), Adeptus Health Inc (NYSE:ADPT), Flow International Corporation (NASDAQ:FLOW), and Etsy Inc (NASDAQ:ETSY). This group of stocks’ market values resemble GPI’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 19 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $335 million. That figure was $283 million in GPI’s case. Loral Space & Communications Ltd. (NASDAQ:LORL) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Adeptus Health Inc (NYSE:ADPT) is the least popular one with only 13 bullish hedge fund positions. Group 1 Automotive, Inc. (NYSE:GPI) 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 LORL might be a better candidate to consider a long position in.

Disclosure: None