Is The Kroger Co. (KR) A Good Stock To Buy?

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key hedge funds were breaking ground themselves. Balyasny Asset Management, managed by Dmitry Balyasny, created the biggest position in The Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR). Balyasny Asset Management had $26 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Peter Muller’s PDT Partners also made an $9.6 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Benjamin A. Smith’s Laurion Capital Management, David Costen Haley’s HBK Investments, and Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to The Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR). These stocks are Bank of Montreal (USA) (NYSE:BMO), CIGNA Corporation (NYSE:CI), BCE Inc. (USA) (NYSE:BCE), and Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM). This group of stocks’ market caps match KR’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 43 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $2184 million. That figure was $1278 million in KR’s case. CIGNA Corporation (NYSE:CI) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand BCE Inc. (USA) (NYSE:BCE) is the least popular one with only 14 bullish hedge fund positions. The Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR) is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. This is a slightly negative signal and we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard CI might be a better candidate to consider a long position.