Should You Buy Avnet, Inc. (AVT)?

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As one would reasonably expect, specific money managers have been driving this bullishness. Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies established the most valuable position in Avnet, Inc. (NYSE:AVT). Renaissance Technologies had $15.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. David Harding’s Winton Capital Management also made a $8.1 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management, D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Avnet, Inc. (NYSE:AVT). These stocks are Reliance Steel & Aluminum (NYSE:RS), US Foods Holding Corp(NYSE:USFD), W.R. Grace & Co. (NYSE:GRA), and WellCare Health Plans, Inc. (NYSE:WCG). All of these stocks’ market caps are closest to AVT’s market cap.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
RS 22 439539 -5
USFD 22 502451 -5
GRA 39 1326561 -8
WCG 31 649423 1

As you can see these stocks had an average of 29 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $729 million. That figure was $743 million in AVT’s case. W.R. Grace & Co. (NYSE:GRA) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Reliance Steel & Aluminum (NYSE:RS) is the least popular one with only 22 bullish hedge fund positions. Avnet, Inc. (NYSE:AVT) 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 GRA might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.

Disclosure: None

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